


My CEO is a Pro Wrestler

by jabajas



Category: AKB48, AKB48 & Related Fandoms, Nogizaka46 (Band), SKE48, Tofu Pro Wrestling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Gyms, Interns & Internships, Pro wrestling - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2019-10-21 21:20:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 43,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17650073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jabajas/pseuds/jabajas
Summary: Miona just wanted to lay low and get through this internship.Maybe make a friend or two.But after one fateful gym encounter, she's dragged into the dangerous, underground world of... pro-wrestling??





	1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 – Nice form**

 

It took her one whole week to do it.

Miona had started her new job at the biggest firm in the city last Monday. (It would’ve been this week, but she’d requested an earlier start date for reasons she didn’t want to get into right now.)

Oba Mina, the head of HR, had shown her around the building—the first two floors were where those on her paygrade would be working, the 5th floor for R&D, the 6th and 7th floor for marketing and finance, and then the top floor for the execs she’d probably only ever see in meetings.

Miona was a part of a batch of new interns. There were three of them so far, with about seven others scheduled to start today. Which brought her back to why she was here today.

She didn’t want to get roped into the whole drag-the-interns around the office parade again, so she’d made herself scarce. A simple “I’m going out” to Sugawara—the only other intern she’d befriended so far—and she’d hightailed it out of her cubicle, into the elevator and up to the 4th floor.

This was where the gym was.

Oba had glossed over it on their tour, but Miona had filed away the access code and opening hours for later use. She figured she’d be spending much of her free time here anyway.

It’s not like she hated her co-workers or anything, they just had different… values. While Miona had only met a few of them so far, she could tell by the bite in their voices and the overly-attentive looks they threw her way that they couldn’t wait to run off and gossip about the new interns. It reminded her of high school. Of those popular cliques she’d avoided in favor of geeking out with her friends over video games. Except this was the real world now, and somehow they’d all ended up on the same career path and she hated it.

She wanted to quit.

But she couldn’t do that yet, so she had to hang in there and find her own little joy in this little hellhole. Enter the 4th floor gym.

Miona walked into the overly clean, overly outfitted gym and she smiled for the first time all day. It was empty and she was happy.

She walked into the locker room like she was walking on clouds. She knew a few of the other workers would probably use the gym every now and then—for their bikini bodies or whatever—but they’d probably avoid going during work. Maybe to avoid getting sweaty or because they were wrapped up in meetings or they were just too busy gossiping instead of working. But for Miona the lowly intern, she had none of that to worry about. Plus, she’d brought showering supplies and an extra change of clothes, so she was all set.

She changed into her gym clothes, stored her stuff in her new locker, pulled up her ‘WORK WORK WORK’ playlist and stepped out of the locker room—

“Oh, hi.”

Miona froze in her tracks. There was someone else in the gym.

“Hi…” No, no, no. This wasn’t a part of the plan. Miona hesitantly smiled at the woman by the weights station as she tried to figure out what to do.

Should she leave?

No, she couldn’t give up so quickly. She needed this to work, she needed the gym if she had any hopes of getting through this internship alive. Plus, now that she thought about it, maybe this woman was from the company on the 3rd floor. She hadn’t seen her so far during her week with the firm. So yeah, maybe Miona had nothing to worry about.

Miona walked over to the bikes, all but convinced that this woman was one of those ‘sports nerds’ (according to her gossiping coworkers) from the 3rd floor.

Oba had said a total of one sentence about them during the tour: “The 3rd floor is leased out to a sporting events company, so be careful not to disturb them.”

Miona had no idea what they did—and googling Ring Solutions ended up in her browsing doorbell options (there were so many!) for thirty minutes. But, they were in the same building, so it made sense that they’d also have access to the gym.

A minor obstacle, but Miona was determined to push through it. Plus, Ring Solutions girl hadn’t said anything else since their first greeting, so maybe this was a nonproblem anyway.

Ten minutes and three miles later, Miona hopped off the bike, ready to start her routine in full.

She glanced over at Ring Solutions girl and saw that she had also moved—she was doing pull-ups now. Miona tried not to stare. She tried really, really hard not to stare. But… Ring Solutions girl was hot.

Miona picked up the stability ball and moved over to the mirrors. She wanted to check her posture during her squats since it’d been a while since her last workout. She stepped up on the ball, quickly found her balance and slowly bent her knees while lowering her upper body. Nice, she still had it. Miona was almost through the first set when her eyes started to stray and—

Ring Solutions girl was looking at her.

Miona’s knees wobbled on the last squat and she tried to find her balance quickly before she ended up embarrassing herself. She let out a sigh of relief when the ball finally stopped shaking. Thank god.

She hopped off the ball to get her land legs back and… maybe Ring Solutions girl wasn’t a nonproblem after all. Maybe she was going to be a very, very _big_ problem for Miona.

“Nice form,” Ring Solutions girl voiced out as she sat down at the rowing machine.

So she was checking out her form. Of course.

“Thanks,” Miona bashfully replied. There Ring Solutions girl was, earnestly showing her appreciation for another gym-goer’s squat form. And there Miona was, trying not to blush as she stared at the sweat dripping down her very, very well-defined shoulders—

“Are you new? I haven’t seen you around before,” Ring Solutions girl asked, and then proceeded to start her rowing set and—

Sweet Jesus, Miona could _not_ be staring at her like this. What if she thought she was creepy and reported her to HR? Did HR even cover cross-company relations? Would they ban her from the gym? Miona could only _imagine_ what the gossip clique would have to say about her then.

“Do you work at Ring?” Ring Solutions girl asked, grunting as she finished her set. Thankfully she hadn’t given much thought to Miona’s lack of an answer.

“No, I work at the firm. I’m interning.” Miona decided it was time to continue her own workout, so she stepped back up onto the stability ball. She saw Ring Solutions girl nod in the mirror as she started another set.

“Cool. You’re the first one I’ve met, then. How are you liking it so far?”

“It’s okay.” And here Miona had a choice to make. How much should she be sharing with Ring Solutions girl? Sure, they worked at different companies, but they were still in the same building. Word travels fast and no way did she want to be branded as that ‘intern who’s always complaining’ by her coworkers. So she decided to stick to a filtered-down version of the truth. “Not much to do yet, but I’ve been learning a lot.”

“Bored already?”

“It’s not like that,” Miona denied. “We’re still waiting to be put on projects, but they couldn’t do that until all of us came in, so.” She didn’t want to keep talking about the firm because she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep her true feelings hidden for too long. So she decided to flip the focus a bit. “But I bet it’s way more exciting at Ring.”

Ring Solutions girl nodded and smiled in a way that clearly said ‘well, you’re not wrong there.’

They didn’t talk much after that.

Both of them went back to their own workouts, doing their own things, but it didn’t feel awkward at all. Miona was able to keep her ‘appreciative glances’ down to a healthy minimum and Ring Solutions girl didn’t comment on any of her other exercises. She was probably too busy absolutely crushing her bench-presses…

Okay, maybe Miona glanced at her more often than she’d like to admit.

They moved to the mats at around the same time to do stretches. And if Miona didn’t like her already, this sealed the deal because—another person who understood the importance of stretching? Amazing.

And it’s on the yoga mats that Miona finally got another hint about her gym buddy.

“Is that a sports team?”

“Hmm?” Ring Solutions girl looked up from her phone where she was setting up her stopwatch.

“Your phone case,” Miona answered, pointing out the crest she’d never seen before. “WIP?”

“Ahhh,” she nodded slowly. “No, it’s… It’s not really…”

And Miona could see her struggling to come up with a way to explain what she’d thought was just a team crest. Guess not. So she decided to help her out.

“Does it stand for anything?”

“WIP…” Okay, maybe that didn’t help at all.

“It’s fine if you don’t want to tell me.”

“No, no, it’s not that. It’s just… It’s hard to explain… And you know how rumours can start…” Ring Solutions girl looked a bit sad about this.

“I won’t tell anyone. I hate gossip anyway.” Miona had to let her know she wasn’t like those other people who couldn’t keep their mouths shut. She understood what it was like to have to hide something for fear of someone making fun of her for it. It seemed like her firm wasn’t the only place that had those kind of people.

“Alright,” Ring Solutions girl smiled and sat up on her mat. She looked excited, but nervous, to be sharing this was someone else. Miona was just happy she could be that someone else. “WIP stands for World International Pro-wrestling. It’s a body that organizes pro-wrestling teams and fights and it’s free to join for anyone. You just have to like it enough and want to improve. They don’t televise matches until you reach the top, top levels because some people just join for the exercise, you know. Some people don’t want it getting out that their doing this because it ruins the fun of it. You don’t have to worry about people making fun of you and you don’t have to feel self-conscious because everyone’s in it because they love it. If you want to take it to the next level, then you train your butt off and join one of the ELITE tournaments. Then we’re talking ranks, prize money, television appearances, everything. But it’s all up to how much you want out of it. And… yeah, that’s it.”

Miona sat there, mouth open, for probably a whole minute.

“Wow…” That’s all she could say. Nothing else seemed appropriate for what she’d just heard.

“Yeah,” Ring Solutions girl looked a bit sheepish. “So, it’s not really a sports team.”

“Do you…” Miona had to clear her dry throat for a second. “So you fight? Like, in a team?”

“Yeah, this is my team.” Ring Solutions girl pulled up a photo on her phone of two girls dressed in tracksuits, posing for the camera. “We’re the PowerStones.”

Ring Solutions girl playfully reenacted the same pose, smirk and all, then laughed because it was obviously something that made her so happy. And that’s how Miona snapped out of her stupor. This wasn’t any different than her love of videogames in high school—a hobby that made her genuinely happy, regardless of whatever anyone else wanted to say about it.

So Miona decided to give her honest opinion.

“This is honestly the coolest thing I have ever heard.”

“Really?” The smile on Ring Solutions girl’s face could probably light up the sky. It definitely lit up Miona’s heart and that was putting it mildly. “It’s kind of weird…”

“No, no, no, it’s amazing!” Miona sat up on her mat—she could stretch later, this was important. “So you’re, like, a pro-wrestler. Like, you could probably break me in half if you wanted to.”

Ring Solutions girl laughed, ditching her stretches too. “And why would I want to do that?”

“I don’t know, but you could!” Miona was gushing, but she couldn’t help it. “I mean, just look at your workout compared to mine. You could definitely break me.”

If Miona’s brain hadn’t short-circuited a while back, she would probably be cringing at what she was saying. She had passed appreciative gushing and was quickly heading into bedroom fantasy territory.

“I wouldn’t do that. Honestly, it’s safer than you think. We practice extra hard to make sure that no one gets badly injured. Plus, they ban a lot of moves in-game until you reach the top levels.”

“What’s your favorite move?”

“Hmm… right now I really like the Rainmaker.”

“What’s it like? Can you show me?” And Miona was already on her feet, mentally preparing herself to be pinned to the ground by Ring Solutions girl. Her mouth and body were moving a mile a minute, and her brain was nowhere to be seen to protect her from making a fool out of herself.

“You want me to do it on you?” Ring Solutions girl got to her feet too, laughing incredulously.

“Sure, what do I have to do? Just tell me,” Miona started stretching her arms. She was going to do this and she was going to be ready.

“Wait, no, I can’t just do it like that.”

“Why not?” Miona’s lips fell into the deepest pout she’d done in a while. She hadn’t had to bring out her pout game for much lately, but she always had it on hand for situations just like this. Ring Solutions girl _was_ going to pin her, she would make sure of it.

“Because we need a proper mat and we need to coach you through the moves and how to fall and everything.”

“Oh…” Miona let her arms fall. She was looking out for her safety. That made sense.

“I mean, I want to—if you want to, that is. But, I’d hate to injure you when I just met you, you know.” Ring Solutions girl chuckled and Miona liked the sound of it. It made her feel a bit better about the rejection. “I figured I should probably know your name first before I pin you on a mat, at least.”

Miona smiled because, yeah, that made sense. But then, she realized what was happening. They were entering the introduction zone. This was the part they’d avoided during their workouts because you didn’t need names to be gym buddies. You didn’t need to be friends to exercise together.

But, getting names, that’s how friendships started. That’s what was about to happen.

This wasn’t a part of Miona’s plan.

“My name’s Miona. Hori Miona.” But the best-laid plans and all that, right? It’d be nice to have another friend in the building, even if they worked in different companies.

“Nice to meet you, Miona. I’m Jurina, Matsui Jurina.”

So Ring Solutions girl = Jurina. It was a nice name, too.

They shook hands a bit awkwardly, probably due to the fact that no one really shakes hands outside of business meetings anymore. Though Miona had to admit that Jurina had a really nice grip.

“Tell you what, if you still want to experience it, you could come to the WIP gym and I could show you around and everything.”

“And you’ll show me the Rainforest.”

Jurina laughed and it really was a beautiful sound. “The Rainmaker and yes, I’ll show it to you.”

“Fine,” Miona nodded. “I guess that will work.”

She turned on her heels and started packing up her mat. Jurina laughed again at her snooty princess act and Miona was just happy that they were already getting along so well. They’d only known each other for like, what, an hour? and they were already—

Wait, what time was it?

Miona’s eyes shot up to the clock on the wall and she almost dropped her mat when she realized she’d been in the gym for an hour and a half. She needed to get back to work, asap.

She quickly put away the mat and started grabbing the rest of her stuff.

“Anything for you, Miona-hime.” Then Jurina noticed her pace. “Are you heading out?”

“Yeah, I gotta get back to work, lest they start to worry I’ve run off or something.”

“Alright, I’ll see you later then.”

“See ya!” Miona waved and hurried off into the locker room. She sped through her shower and got dressed faster than should have been humanly possible. When she walked back into the gym on the way to the door, Jurina was gone.

She briefly wondered if there was another space to store their things because she was sure that Jurina hadn’t come into the locker room at all. But then, she forgot all about that as she got into the elevator and started her descent back into hell.

 

She worked through lunch, of course.

That was the tradeoff for going to the gym during work hours. Sugawara caught her up on all she’d missed while she was gone—which was absolutely nothing.

As far as she could tell from her Outlook calendar, they’d scheduled an intern orientation meeting for tomorrow, so she’d have to skip her workout for that day. That meant she wouldn’t see Jurina tomorrow. Hopefully they’d be able to meet the day after that so they could properly make plans to go to that WIP gym.

Miona needed a spark in her life and this definitely had the potential to be what she was looking for. She doubted she’d actually join the WIP or anything, but she wasn’t going to say no to getting a new friend.

“Ah, Miona, could you follow me please?”

Miona looked up into the eyes of Oba Mina, the head of HR, and her heart nearly fell out of her chest.

Oh no.

Were they firing her already? No, no, no, this couldn’t be happening.

Miona shakily got to her feet and stepped out of her cubicle. Sugawara gave her a nervous glance as she passed her, and she could feel the stares of the other coworkers on her back. The gossip clique were going to have a field day with this one, for sure.

But Miona didn’t care what they thought. All she could think about was the fact that everything was going to be over before it even started and she was gutted. She’d needed this to work. And she’d failed.

Oba lead her to the elevator and it felt like a walk of shame, except she didn’t even know what she did wrong. Did it even matter though?

In the elevator, Oba smiled reassuringly at her and pressed the button for the 8th floor. The top floor.

When they got out, Miona was lead to the big office with the prized corner view. The name plaque on the door was still blank because the new CEO had only been there for like a month. Like Miona, the CEO was a new hire, but unlike Miona, they weren’t about to be fired.

“Here she is,” Oba said as she opened the door.

Miona walked in and froze in her tracks when she saw who was sitting at the desk. Smiling at her, like she knew exactly what she was feeling.

“Thanks Minarun~” Jurina called out to Oba as she left. The door closed harder than was necessary. And then her gym buddy turned on her, smiling all the while. “I hope you don’t mind me calling you up, Miona-hime.”

“You… You’re the CEO.”

“I’m the CEO,” Jurina confirmed, spreading her arms out wide to show off her very impressive office.

Correction:

Jurina != Ring Solutions girl

Jurina = CEO of hell company she works for

Okay, now that Miona had that sorted out in her head:

“What the fuck?”


	2. Please don't call HR

**Chapter 2 – Please don’t call HR**

 

Jurina laughed long and hard.

Miona would be laughing too, if she didn’t feel like she just got pranked. “I’m sorry, you’re the CEO? Are you serious?”

“Why?” Jurina said as she got to her feet, showing off her very nice suit. “Don’t I look the part?”

“I’m sorry—and please don’t call HR.”

“Why would I call HR?” Jurina stopped laughing for a second, looking puzzled by her request.

“It’s just… What the actual fuck?” Miona wasn’t much of a potty-mouth, but this was an exception. A situation like this called for some exceptional language. “You’re the CEO of the most—and don’t call HR—”

“I said I won’t—”

“—the most boring firm known to humankind _and_ you’re a pro-wrestler? How is that even possible?”

“Wow,” Jurina chuckled, shaking her head. “Tell me how you really feel.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I’m fine. I just had to get that out of my system.” Miona cleared her throat, trying to get back some semblance of calm. And then she realized she may have said more than she should’ve to a coworker she’d just met a few hours ago. A coworker who was also the CEO. Okay. “You can call HR now.”

“I’m not,” Jurina walked around her desk, stepping in front of Miona. She gave her the most reassuring smile she’d ever seen. “I’m not going to call HR, I promise. I just wanted to talk to you.”

Jurina directs her to the couch next to the floor-to-ceiling windows filling an entire wall of the office. This was a really nice office.

“I thought you worked at Ring Solutions, honestly,” Miona said as she sat down.

“I kind of figured as much.” Jurina sat down beside her, stretching her arm out along the back of the couch. Maybe it was because Miona knew how well-defined she was under that suit, but she couldn’t help but notice her jacket stretched pretty tight around her arms. Jurina needed a bigger suit, to be honest.

“Then why didn’t you correct me?”

“Because… I didn’t want to bring work into the gym, you know. That’s why I go there during work hours,” the CEO admitted.

And Miona could definitely relate to that feeling.

“You could just work out at the WIP gym,” Miona pointed out.

“I do that too, but lately…” Jurina looked away and out the windows beside them. Miona could tell there was something bothering her. “It’s easier going to this one.”

Miona wanted to ask, but she knew they weren’t close enough yet to warrant her digging into her private life.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about? Besides making me look like an idiot.”

“Oh no, you’re not an idiot, I just thought it’d be funny. I’m sorry,” Jurina apologized. Her face morphed into the definition of repentance, pouty lips and all. Miona had to admit, the CEO had a pretty strong pout game.

“Apology not accepted,” Miona huffed, turning up her nose.

“Please, please forgive me, Miona-hime.” Jurina bowed in her seat. Miona could hear her trying to stifle her laughter though.

“Are you laughing?”

“No, I’m not--” Jurina straightened up, shaking her head and completely losing at keeping a straight face. Her smile was out in full-force now and it almost made Miona break character. But she held strong.

“I can’t believe you think this is funny,” Miona got to her feet, ready to storm to the door, but Jurina caught her hand to stop her.

“Miona-hime, I’m sorry~”

“This is simply unforgivable. That’s it. To repay this heinous crime, I demand that you… CEO Matsui Jurina…” Just saying her full name and title had Miona in disbelief that this was actually happening. The CEO and the lowly intern, playing around like this, as if they’d known each other for ages. Unbelievable. But here there were. “I demand that you… take me to the WIP gym so that I can watch one of your matches.”

Jurina sobered up once she heard the request in full. “You want to see me fight?”

“I still don’t think this is real,” Miona gestured to the CEO sitting on the couch. “So I want to see some proof.”

Jurina nodded, considering for a moment. “Okay. You have a deal.”

She stuck out her hand for their second handshake of the day. Miona took it confidently, but she still was left utterly impressed by the CEO’s grip strength. “Your grip is ridiculous.”

“Intimidation tactic. It helps you get the first leg up on your opponents, show them you mean business.”

“Do you use it in actual business too? Like, here at work?”

Jurina got to her feet, taking the time to straighten out the wrinkles in her suit. Miona really thought she’d be better off with a suit that wasn’t practically painted on, but that was just her opinion.

“I haven’t had to bring out the big guns yet, but I look forward to it.”

Miona scoffs. “The big guns?”

“Don’t act like you didn’t see it.”

The blush that spread across Miona’s face was as sudden as it was obvious. Jurina smirked at her, but Miona wasn’t going to back down. “Eh, I’ve seen better.”

“Oh, so that’s how you want to play it, huh? I guess I’ll just have to…”

Miona stared incredulously as Jurina started slowly lifting her arms.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Take it back.”

“You’re going to rip your suit if you try to do that,” Miona warned even as the CEO was hellbent on proving her point. Her arms were at a 90 degree angle now, ready to fire. Miona couldn’t believe that Jurina was real.

“Ready for the big guns?”

Miona shook her head, trying one last time. “Don’t do it.”

“Kapow!” And the effect was immediate. Jurina flexed her arms and the top button of her jacket flew right off, nearly taking out Miona’s eye in the process. Thankfully she ducked, but she still heard the glorious sound of the sleeves of the CEO’s jacket ripping under the sudden stress.

The projectile button hit the door and finally came rolling to a stop right at Miona’s feet. Almost as an offering for her ignored prophecy.

“Uhh…” Was the only thing Jurina could say in the aftermath.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe you just did that,” Miona covered her eyes in shock and disbelief.

“Please don’t look,” the CEO squeaked out.

And Miona finally burst into laughter. She couldn’t believe that had really just happened. She could hear the sound of Jurina scurrying around the office, finding a replacement jacket, putting it on, and finally, picking up the button at Miona’s feet. Sure, she had said she’d needed a spark in her life, but this was far from what she’d expected.

How was Jurina even a real person? How?

“Okay, you can open your eyes now.” The CEO’s voice sounded stronger, more composed. Definitely not like she’d just flexed and ripped her jacket in front of her intern.

Miona opened her eyes and looked at Jurina, who was now standing in front of her desk. Looking as regal and refined as ever.

“Can I just say…” Miona paused to truly savor this moment. “I… told.. you… so.”

Jurina’s eyes shifted nervously, “Please don’t call HR.”

Miona laughed one final time—no need to rub it in forever. “I won’t. But, I should probably head back to work soon. Since you’re not firing me, it’d look pretty suspicious if I stayed in here too long.”

“Fire you? You thought I was going to fire you?”

“I didn’t know who you were, remember? All I knew was that HR was calling me to your office.” Miona shrugged, knowing she was fully justified in her fears.

“Did you do anything worth being fired that I should know about?”

“Yes,” she answered with a straight face. When Jurina quirked a brow at her, obviously waiting for her to explain, Miona just smiled. “Show me your Rainjacket and I’ll tell you.”

Jurina shook her head. She had to know she was just trolling her at this point, right? “It’s the Rainmaker and I promise I’ll show you when you come to the gym.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” she said as she started to back out of the office. She really did need to get back to work. She could only imagine what the gossip clique had managed to come up with in her absence so far.

“I’ll give you the address. Tell me when you’re free and we’ll coordinate.”

“Put it in my Outlook calendar.”

“You want me to schedule a meeting? During work? The company keeps those records, you know.”

“Then don’t make it too conspicuous,” Miona pointed out as she reached out to open the door.

“Miona-hime~” And Miona slammed the door shut as soon as she opened it. She glared back at Jurina who had the smuggest smile she’d ever seen plastered on her face. “I’ll see you later.”

She waved in that icky business/political way and Miona had to swallow the urge to say something HR wouldn’t approve of. Though, come to think of it, she wasn’t sure there was much they’d done in the CEO’s office that Oba _would_ approve of.

“Try to stay clothed.” And with that, Miona walked out of Jurina’s office.

 

Miona let out the longest breath in history the second she sat back down in her too-stiff office chair. She was still employed, but at what cost?

“How did it go?” Sugawara hesitantly asked from the neighboring cubicle.

“It was fine, just some orientation paperwork I missed.” Maybe one day she’d get close enough to Sugawara to tell her the truth. Until then, she’d have to do her best to keep a few secrets.

“That’s good, it sounded kind of scary to be honest,” she smiled with relief.

“I know, I can’t wait to hear what stories are already going around about me.”

“Do you really want to know?”

“Hmm, maybe tomorrow.” They shared a laugh before getting back to the rest of the workday.

Miona opened her laptop and the first thing she saw was an email notification from ‘Jurina Matsui, CEO.’

 

**_To:_ ** _‘Miona Hori’[mhori@thefirminc.com](mailto:mhori@thefirminc.com)_

**_From:_ ** _‘Jurina Matsui, CEO’[jmatsui@thefirminc.com](mailto:jmatsui@thefirminc.com)_

**_CC:_ ** _‘Mina Oba’[moba@thefirminc.com](mailto:moba@thefirminc.com)_

**_Subject:_ ** _Ring Solutions consult_

_Small team required to assess the latest requirement for the Ring Solutions project_

_Shouldn’t take more than two hours._

_Minarun, please assign Ms. Hori to the Ring Solutions project as she will be needed to provide valuable feedback on the new directions._

_Best Regards,_

_J. Matsui_

_Jurina Matsui_

_CEO_

_The Firm, Inc._

 

Miona hovered over the ‘Accept’ button as she took in the audacity of the email. In a way, she knew that this was more than just a ‘meeting’ invitation. It was an invitation into the world that was Miss J. Matsui. Was that what Miona wanted?

She tried to think back to her feelings at the start of the internship, to her feelings even just this morning before that fateful gym encounter. Her goal had been to keep her head down. To power through this internship so she could finally prove to them that… Her goal was to not fail.

Not failing, so far so good.

Keeping her head down, though—that didn’t seem like much of a choice with the way things were going. But she didn’t want to back out now.

Jurina was the spark. And Miona wanted that spark in her life. She could only hope that her life wouldn’t change too much now that she’d let her in.

Miona clicked ‘Accept’ and watched as the meeting was added to her calendar.

And one Miss J. Matsui was added to her life.


	3. Don't ask about the bird

**Chapter 3 – Don’t ask about the bird**

 

“And so I just want to welcome you all to the best company this side of the river—and maybe even the world, if we’re being honest.” Jurina chuckled to herself, obviously pleased with her little joke. The interns sitting in the conference room in front of her just smiled politely to appease her.

Miona was almost impressed that everyone had already figured out how to handle the young CEO. Jurina thought she was funny and loved to make little jokes or puns when you least expected it. All you had to do was smile, maybe laugh a couple of times, and you were set.

“Thank you, CEO Matsui,” Oba cut in. She applauded Jurina, which of course inspired the rest of the interns to start clapping as well. They were so well-trained at this point. “Before we go into project details, do you have any questions for CEO Matsui?”

“Just Jurina is fine,” Jurina smiled.

Miona could’ve sworn she saw Oba turn and give the CEO the deadliest glare ever, but it was over before she could confirm it with Sugawara.

And speaking of Miona’s only other friend, “I have a question.”

Sugawara’s hand shot up eagerly in the air. Jurina looked beyond happy that someone actually had a question so she picked her right away.

“Oh, yes Miss…”

“Sugawara Maya. My question is, why The Firm?”

“Why did I choose to join the company? Excellent question! Well, instead of me choosing The Firm, I really think The Firm chose me—”

“Um, no, sorry,” Sugawara cut in apologetically. “I meant the name. Um, it’s just I’ve always wondered why anyone would name a company… The Firm.”

A couple of the interns let out a snicker or two before quickly covering it up with a cough.

“That is… also a good question,” Jurina nodded. She looked a bit lost on how to answer though, so she turned to her trusty head of HR who was still standing beside her. “A question that I will throw over to Minarun, as I’m still in the process of learning as much as I can about this beautiful company.”

Oba’s eyes narrowed, but she picked up the question anyway. “Legal reasons. We had a different name at the start, but we felt that it could’ve been stronger. So, when the opportunity came to strengthen our market position and remodel our brand, we took it. And so, The Firm was born.”

Translation: they were sued by the former CEO after he was thrown out by the shareholders. He’d been caught up in a fraud court case that was front-page news for like a month. The Firm’s former name had had his name in it and so they’d changed that asap. So fast, in fact, that not a lot of thought seemed to have gone into its replacement.

Oba nodded to end her mini-speech and Jurina applauded her like she’d just won an Oscar.

“Well, there you have it,” The CEO smiled. “Taking advantage of the opportunities in front of us, forging ahead despite setbacks, constantly improving and innovating. Truly impressive, don’t you think? And now, with a Firm foot forward…”

Miona was ready for that pun, so the smile was on her face before the sentence even started.

“It’s time for you, our newest members, to finally step into The Firm family.”

Applause filled the conference room and finally the meeting was over.

At least, Jurina’s speech/Q&A was. Now, all that was left were their project assignments. Oba left the room to get the other project managers so that they could start the long-overdue process.

Usually, the other interns would be in full-on gossip mode the second she left them to their own devices, but not this time. Jurina was still in the room. No one wanted to fool around in front of the CEO.

Jurina didn’t seem to mind that everyone was awkwardly frozen in fear, as she’d already opened up her laptop and was typing away at some business or another.

And then Miona felt her phone vibrate in her pocket.

At first, she thought it was just a coincidence, and then she remembered that she had linked her Outlook account to her phone. She surreptitiously glanced over at the CEO to confirm her suspicions.

Jurina didn’t do anything for a moment, but then—almost in slow motion—her hand came up into a very familiar PowerStones pose. As soon as the smirk showed up, Miona had her answer.

She shook her head as she pulled out her phone underneath the table. They definitely needed a better signal.

 

**_Subject_ ** _: Re: Ring Solutions consult_

_As we’ve already assigned Ms. Hori to the current Ring Solutions project, I was hoping to have a word with her after the New Intern Orientation meeting to confirm her new responsibilities._

_Minarun, we’ll be in my office if you need us._

_Best Regards,_

_J. Matsui_

 

Miona pondered how best to go about this.

It was obvious Jurina wanted them to slip out without informing anyone, else she would’ve just said all of that aloud. She was probably banking on Oba clearing up any questions should they come up while they were gone. Now, Miona just had to figure out how to leave…

“Bathroom,” she huffed out, getting to her feet.

Sugawara looked at her, shocked at the sudden movement, but didn’t say anything as she left the room. Miona noticed the other interns’ eyes following her, but none of them would dare say anything while Jurina was still in the room.

Once out of the stuffy conference room, Miona made a beeline for the elevator.

She got in, but didn’t press a number for another floor. Just waited for the doors to close, then waited for the inevitable to happen. What must have been just a few minutes later, the doors opened again and standing right there was the woman she was waiting for. Jurina.

“I thought you’d already gone up,” she said as she pressed the button for the 8th floor.

“I wanted to wait,” Miona shrugged. “Do we actually have a project with Ring Solutions?”

She’d been wondering about that since yesterday when the first email from Jurina had landed in her inbox.

“We do,” Jurina nodded. “I wanted to get a feel for how everything works as the new CEO, so I chose a small company in need of our business solutions.”

“Translation, please.”

The CEO laughed. “Translation… you’ll see.”

“What do I say when the others ask me what project I’m on?” Miona was sure the question would come up sooner, rather than later.

“The truth. This is all above board stuff, trust me.”

“Then why all the secret emails?”

“Hey, you’re the one who wanted me to schedule this during work,” Jurina complained. “I’m only following your orders, Miona-hime.”

Miona shook her head at the CEO. “You get a real kick out of calling me that, don’t you?”

“I’m just having fun. The key to loving your work is having fun.”

And with that bit of sage advice, the elevator doors opened as they finally got to the top floor. Jurina walked briskly towards her office, Miona following along. Before opening the door however, the CEO turned back to give her a word of warning.

“Don’t ask about the bird.”

“What—”

“Ms. Takayanagi, good morning!” Jurina cheerfully greeted as she stepped into her office. She glided over to shake the hand of the guest rising out of her chair.

The guest… who had a fucking pterodactyl perched on her shoulder.

Miona froze in shock at the door, backing right up against it. What. The. Hell.

“Hollywood, it’s been a while.”

“Please, call me Jurina,” the CEO smiled, turning to Miona to introduce her as well. “And this is Miss Hori, who is also a newcomer to The Firm. She’ll be assisting us with the new proposal.”

Miona tried to smile and at least _look_ professional, but her mind was in full-on survival mode. The door was the nearest exit should things get hairy—maybe the window too? No, they were on the 8th floor, the window was a bad idea. Also, could no one else see the absolute monster on that lady’s shoulder?! Why was she the only one freaking out?

“Miona,” Jurina called out hesitantly. “This is Ms. Takayanagi—”

“Takayanagi is the name of the girl outside of the Ring. That girl has never tasted the cold metal of the belt of victory and she never will.” Bird lady started walking towards Miona and—no, no, no, please don’t come over here. Please stay away. “Bird is the name the Ring has given me and I will wear it with pride until I can replace it with that long-awaited belt. Do you think the belt will fit me Miss Hori?”

“I… I don’t…” Where was good old HR when you needed them? Surely, this constituted harassment? Miona glanced over at Jurina to save her, but the CEO was just standing there, nervously waiting for her intern’s response. Fine, it looked like she was on her own. Miona glanced up into the beady eyes of the bird from hell and said the only thing she could think of. “So you’re a wrestler too?”

“Not just a wrestler,” Jurina cut in. The CEO rushed over to the scene and quickly lead Miona away to the couch. She then ushered bird lady and her demon sidekick over to the plush chair in front of her desk. It’s good that she separated them, one second more and Miona was sure that creature would’ve pounced. And if that had happened… well, she wouldn’t be held responsible for what she did in self-defense. “Bird—or Churi, here—is the brains behind Ring Solutions’ latest investment. It’s going to put Ring on the map in the biggest way possible.”

“Bird brain,” Miona whispered to herself. Thankfully she was far enough away that no one heard her. Except that bird. Of course that vulture turned to glare at her and—how had nobody called PETA yet? This was ridiculous.

“We couldn’t do it without you, Jurina.”

“Oh please, I only polished it up and got it in front of the eyes that mattered. The only reason this took off is because, like me, they could see your passion shining through. I’m just happy to help that passion take root.“ The CEO smiled a toothpaste-commercial smile that would’ve blinded Miona had she seen it. How she wished she could’ve been looking at the fine specimen that is Jurina instead of having a deadly stare-down with a carnivorous hell beast.

Whatever the CEO was doing was obviously working though, because bird lady pulled down her not-so-little friend into her lap and started leisurely petting it. “You said you had a few changes to the proposal?”

Miona breathed a sigh of relief and took the opportunity to tune into the conversation.

“Right,” Jurina said, pulling out a whiteboard-on-wheels from who knows where. On it, there were drawings of a very complicated relationship diagram. Miona could make out a few names she sort of recognized like WIP, Hollywood, ELITE and PowerStones. “As you know, the upcoming season is starting soon. What we want to do is get Ring Solutions into the conversation well before then.”

Jurina started circling a few names and drawing arrows all over the place, but Miona was too clueless to have any idea what any of it meant. Thankfully, the CEO threw her a bone.

“Miona, I know this won’t all make sense to you yet, but that’s why your input is going to be so valuable to us.” Jurina capped her marker and walked over to stand by the couch so she could see the board from Miona’s perspective. “Churi and I have been in the mix for too long to be very objective anymore, so we’ll be needing an outside opinion to keep us grounded.”

“Sure…” She could get behind that. “But what exactly am I giving an opinion on…?”

“Ring Solutions has been around in this city for generations,” Bird lady started to explain and—oh no, why was she getting up? Why was she coming closer? Why was that unidentified flying object in her hands looking so happy all of a sudden? Miona wished she had never said anything now. “Under different names, but the purpose has stayed the same.”

“Providing a safe space for sports for everyone. No matter the skill level, no matter the sport. As long as you have fun,” Jurina recited.

“Oh, that sounds a bit like—”

“Like the WIP? Correct.” The CEO nodded as she sat down beside Miona on the couch.

“When the WIP came to town, they inadvertently took up a large portion of our customer base.” Bird lady scowled as she recounted what happened. “So that’s how we came to The Firm. We needed to do something to secure our company’s interests.”

“And how are you going to do that?”

“Well,” Jurina smiled, once again stretching her arm out along the back of the couch. Thankfully, her suit was appropriately-sized today, so Miona didn’t have to worry about a repeat of yesterday’s fiasco. “Ring Solutions is going to take over the WIP. That’s the plan.”

Miona’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head.

“They’re going to do what? How? Isn’t the WIP like massive?” She knew this because, after her fateful encounter with Jurina yesterday, she’d looked up the WIP on the interwebs. Unlike Ring Solutions, she’d found a lot of results about the biggest pro-wrestling event organizer in the world. It was actually ridiculous how large this company was. They had a branch in almost every city in the country and had acquired an almost cult-like following among the general workforce. No one talked about the WIP, but chances are someone you knew was in the WIP. It was literally fight club—but with a promise of prize money and celebrity status, instead of gun wounds and a split personality.

The point is, however, that the WIP was many times the size of Ring Solutions. Many, many times. What plan could Jurina have possibly come up with for bird lady’s company to take over that kind of juggernaut?

“Every plan starts with a first step,” the CEO answered, doling out another fortune-cookie-ready bit of advice. “And the hardest fruit has the softest center.”

“I’m sorry, what?” What on Earth was she talking about?

“The WIP is open to everyone. That’s how we get in.” And for the first time in this ‘meeting’, Miona was grateful to bird lady for clearing that up.

“There’s a certain power that the champion has,” Jurina explained. “There’s a reason so many are vying for the top. So the plan: Get in, get to the top, and once you’re the champion, the rest will follow. The rest being, of course, re-installing Ring Solutions as the premier sports destination in the city.”

“So…” Miona tried to process the ‘plan’ as best she could. She looked around at the other occupants in the room. “One of you is going to become the champion and… destroy a multi-million dollar company.”

“Not destroy, no.” Jurina shied away from the term. “The legal team hates that word. Think… re-structuring, re-inventing, re-imagining—”

“Okay, I get it.” Miona cut her off.

“What do you think?” Bird lady inquired. She reached up to pet the head of her dragon as she waited for Miona’s response. Was that meant to be as intimidating as it looked?

“Well… ” What _did_ she think? “I can’t really say much because I haven’t even seen you fight. Either of you. You could be the worst wrestlers known to man—and in that case I think this is a terrible plan.”

“You’re right,” Jurina clapped her hands, sitting up in her seat. “Enough talk, we need action.”

“Hold on! I don’t mean you should fight now—”

“Churi, when next can you make it to the gym? We’ll need to go over bracket-specifics as well once they get in.”

“I’ll have to check my schedule.”

Bird lady turned and walked back to her seat, but apparently her demonbird didn’t like the sudden movement. It flew up to the ceiling, but bird lady didn’t pay it much attention.

Miona and Jurina, however…

“Holy shit…” Miona croaked out, petrified with fear.

“It’s fine, it’s just stretching it’s wings, don’t worry.” Jurina tried to downplay their impending doom, but it didn’t help that she wouldn’t take her eyes off the angel of death above them.

“Jurina—”

“It’s fine, don’t worry—”

“I want to call HR, can I please call HR, I don’t want to die, please—”

“I think I should be free a few days next week… Thursday’s looking pretty good…” Bird lady was looking through her phone, completely oblivious to the horror she had unleashed upon them.

The mutant bird spread its wings out wide, its neck bulging as it screeched down at the two of them on the couch.

“Everything’s going to be fine, Miona, we’re going to be just fine—”

“I know you were saving that Rainfaker or whatever, but I think now would be a perfectly good time to bring it out—”

“It’s the Rainmak—”

And then the bird attacked.

“Oh my god!”

Miona closed her eyes and braced herself for a terrifying end… but it never came.

She slowly cracked open her eyes to see Jurina standing over her, smiling as if everything was fine. “See? I… told you…”

But then her smile started to falter and Miona could see that no, the bird hadn’t disappeared. Instead it was pecking away like mad on the CEO’s back. It was as if a woodpecker and a demon had had a baby and some crazy bird lady had decided to turn it into a pet. That’s probably exactly what happened.

“Churi!” Jurina shouted out, nearing her limit.

“Huh? Hey, what are you doing?” Finally bird lady decided it was time to intervene. She quickly wrangled the animal away from the poor CEO. “We don’t attack Hollywood, remember? She’s our friend.”

Miona ignored bird lady’s ramblings in favor of what she _should_ be focusing on.

“You saved me.”

Jurina smiled down at her, still braced protectively over her body on the couch. “Of course I did, Miona-hime.”

“Shut up.” But Miona was smiling right along with her.

“I didn’t even have to show off my Rainmak—”

“CEO Matsui, I have a question—” A small knock was all the warning they had before the office door flew open and in walked Oba Mina, head of HR. She froze as she took in the outrageous scene that greeted her.

Feathers falling like rain, a crazy bird lady cooing to her even crazier bird, and a CEO and an intern…

A CEO hovering over an intern…

A CEO in very, very close proximity to an intern who she may or may not have been giving special attention to recently.

Miona didn’t need to wait for Oba to come to her senses to know what she was thinking. So she decided to say it for her.

“Oh shit.”


	4. Are you okay?

**Chapter 4 – Are you okay?**

 

Miona wanted to disappear.

The very first thing she saw when she sat down at her desk the next morning was a company-wide email sent out by Oba Mina, the head of HR.

 

**_To_ ** _: ‘ALL Firm’[thefirm-all@thefirminc.com](mailto:thefirm-all@thefirminc.com)_

**_From_ ** _: ‘Mina Oba’[moba@thefirminc.com](mailto:moba@thefirminc.com)_

**_CC_ ** _: ‘Jurina Matsui, CEO’[jmatsui@thefirminc.com](mailto:jmatsui@thefirminc.com)_

**_Subject_ ** _: Company relations refresher_

_As we’ve recently welcomed our new interns to the Firm family, I’d like to take this time to give a refresher presentation on our company culture and relations guidelines._

_Attendance is MANDATORY_

_Best regards,_

_Mina_

_Mina Oba_

_Head of HR_

_The Firm, Inc._

 

Miona clicked on the ‘Accept’ button in record-time. She didn’t want to give HR any other reason to put her in the doghouse.

Thankfully, Oba hadn’t immediately fired her on the spot when she’d found her in Jurina’s office. Incriminating as it had seemed, there’d been a good explanation for why they’d been in that position. Jurina had taken it upon herself to explain what had happened. Oba had listened and nodded, but Miona knew she’d still had her suspicions.

The rest of the workday had been uneventful. Miona had started thinking that maybe, just maybe, they’d avoided the worst.

Of course, she was wrong.

Sugawara sat down in her cubicle and within seconds she had also seen the email.

“Whoa. Hey Miona, have you seen this?” She had.

“Hmm? Seen what?”

“Check your emails, HR sent out something.”

Miona went through the motions of bringing up the offending email and pretending to be shocked when she re-read the words. “Oh wow.”

“I know! What do you think happened? I bet one of the interns did something,” Sugawara whispered excitedly. As much as Miona loved to hate on the gossip clique at work, she knew that her friend didn’t mind them at all. In fact, Sugawara was friends with a lot of those other interns. She went out to their happy hours and always knew what the latest hot topic was. In a way, Miona was happy that her friend was in-the-know. That made it very easy for her to suss out whether or not her own name had hit the rumor mill yet.

“Did you hear anything?” Miona carefully asked.

“Not yet, but I have a couple of guesses.” Sugawara looked around carefully—obviously she didn’t want anyone overhearing them talking. “I heard that one of the project managers just so happened to get all of the, um, well-endowed interns.”

“No.” Miona was getting really good at this pretend-shock thing.

“I mean, maybe it’s a coincidence or whatever, but who knows? And with this email—oh my god, one of them just got in.” Sugawara quickly rolled back to her desk so she could spy on the group of interns who’d just gotten off the elevator.

Miona let out a sigh of relief. She was still safe for now. She just had to be careful not to keep drawing unwanted attention to herself.

She glanced at the time on her laptop and contemplated whether or not to go to the gym today.

Hmm, maybe tomorrow.

 

She had lunch with Sugawara in the cafeteria.

It shared the 4th floor space with the gym, which made sense. All of the communal spaces were on the same floor. Theoretically, Ring Solutions also had access to these spaces, but Miona had yet to see a single ‘sport nerd’ among the well-suited Firm employees.

Though, if any of the other Ring staff were like Bird Takayanagi, then Miona was fine never ever meeting them. Ever.

They got the lunch special which was some garden-variety vegetable explosion with like a hint of chicken. It was what all the other interns were getting, so why not.

They looked around for seats after they got out of the line, but nothing was open. Just when Miona was about to cave and suggest they sit with the other interns (ugh), someone started waving at them.

They turned to see none other than Miss Jurina Matsui, CEO, smiling at them from a table smack-dab in the center of the room. Miona didn’t know what this was, but she knew it was a bad idea.

“Hey, why don’t you two come sit with us?” Jurina offered, gesturing to two open seats at her table.

“Um…” Sugawara looked to Miona for help, but what else could they do?

“Sure.”

They sat down opposite each other at a table filled with other high-level executives. Most of them Miona could only remember by job title, like oh there was the head of Marketing trying to steal the baby carrots off the VP of Finance’s plate. Nice.

Why were they at this table again?

 “I was just saying how we’re really excited for this year’s interns because so many of the people who’ve stayed on at The Firm for years and years—they all started out as interns, right?” Jurina looked around excitedly at the table. Many of them were nodding along. “I wish I’d been able to find a company like this when I was starting out, I would’ve loved it here.”

“Who says we would’ve hired you?” Asked one of the biggest men Miona had ever seen. Not just by height, but by width, depth, every dimension possible. This man was massive. He was also smiling, which didn’t exactly fit in with his Terminator-like appearance.

“Good point,” Jurina joked along. “Miss Hori, Miss Sugawara, I don’t know if you’ve met Mr. Taguchi. He was probably in a few of your interviews.”

“We’ve met,” Sugawara confirmed.  She covered her mouth as she finished chewing. “You recommended that dojo thing in town, right?”

“He did?” The CEO looked surprised to hear this. And Miona could understand why. If this ‘dojo thing’ was what she suspected it was, then it sounded like this guy had tried to talk Sugawara into joining the WIP. She couldn’t even imagine what that would look like. Gossip girl Sugawara as a pro wrestler? Oh my god.

“I did,” Taguchi nodded. “Sugawara is from out of town, if I remember correctly.”

“That’s right.”

“And she wanted to know if there was anything around here to do outside of work. Did you end up going?”

“No,” Sugawara shook her head. “I went out with the other interns, instead.”

The others shared a few laughs at that.  
“And that’s valid, too.” Taguchi smiled. “Just wanted to give you options.”

Miona let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. She glanced over at Jurina and saw that she looked similarly relieved. Sure the WIP was supposed to be an open secret, but Miona liked that she only knew two people (so far) who were actually in it. If more and more of her coworkers started joining, then… that would just be weird.

Hopefully Jurina would talk to this Taguchi guy, who Miona figured was probably also in the WIP. He looked the part, at least.

Miona thought back to her own interviews. Hers did not have a friendly neighbourhood pro wrestler joining in. They had been fairly straightforward, and she really could only remember talking to Oba Mina, head of HR.

She remembered what Oba had told her as they were wrapping up: “I know you might see this as a waste of time, but please remember it’s not like that for the other interns. This is a big step for their careers. It could be for you too, if you let it. In any case, I hope you find something fulfilling during your time here.”

Something fulfilling… She didn’t know if she’d found that yet.

Miona picked at her food as she listened to Sugawara schmooze her way through the conversation with the big-wigs. Her friend wasn’t an idiot, as airheaded as she may appear. This was a big chance for her to network and she was taking it. Just because Miona couldn’t care less, didn’t mean that the same applied to the others.

Speaking of her coworkers…

Miona glanced at one of the intern tables out of the corner of her eye and she could see them huddled together. Did they ever do anything besides gossip? When one of them cast a furtive look towards her table, she knew exactly who they were talking about.

She sighed and that’s when she felt something rubbing against her feet.

Miona nearly jumped out of her chair, but she held it in.

There better not be a snake under the table, there better not be a _snake_ under the table, there better not be a SNAKE under the—

It rubbed her feet again and yes, she may have squealed.

She covered it up with a cough and when she looked up she noticed a familiar PowerStones pose and smirk from a certain CEO. They _really_ needed a better signal. In any case, she was happy that it was just Jurina trying to get her attention and not a fucking snake that was attacking her.

‘What?’ she mouthed.

‘Are you okay?’ Jurina mouthed backed. And alright, maybe it was kind of sweet how she’d noticed that she was feeling a bit down.

Miona smiled, ‘I’m fine.’

‘Good,’ Jurina nodded. Then, of course she couldn’t help but adding, ‘Miona-hime.’

Miona shook her head, but she could feel her mood going back up. She decided to ride this wave of unexpected positivity and see if she could jump into the ongoing conversation. “You said a lot of you guys started out as interns too?”

“Oh yeah, why? Can’t believe it?” Taguchi asked jokingly. “Straight out of college, too. Back then I was only half the size and not even a third as charming, but somehow I made the cut.”

“Please stop spreading rumors that we hire based on looks. Minarun will kill me,” Jurina pleaded. But she was smiling, so obviously she wasn’t that worried.

“Hey, why do you think we hired you?” He smacked the CEO’s back good-naturedly and Miona winced at the sound of the impact. It sounded like hitting concrete, but Jurina shook it off like it was nothing.

“Because of my Firm take on life, of course.” Jurina sat back and folded her arms, letting her well-defined muscles bulging out of her suit speak for themselves.

Miona had to admit, they were very… eloquent.

“Very firm,” Sugawara couldn’t help but whisper, but everyone heard her. The entire table burst out into laughter, with Sugawara looking absolutely mortified. She rushed to apologize, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to—I’m so sorry—”

Jurina waved her off. “It’s fine, it’s fine. If Minarun asks, just tell her it was all my fault. As per usual.”

“Another MANDATORY meeting being scheduled as we speak,” the VP laughed.

“Next week, it’s just going to be a lecture series: Are your Relations Firm enough at The Firm?”

Jurina shook her head, but she let her coworkers carry on teasing her.

Miona smiled. Maybe she couldn’t say yet if she’d get as much out of this internship as the others, but she knew one thing had changed so far: She finally had something to look forward to.

She’d found the spark.


	5. We should exchange numbers

**Chapter 5 – We should exchange numbers**

 

“Dunkin’ Donuts, may I take your order?”

“Yeah, um,” Jurina leaned out of her window and squinted at the faded menu board next to the drive-thru speaker. “Sausage, bacon, egg and cheese on an everything bagel, with… an extra side of bacon and hash browns—oh, and a chocolate donut and a medium orange juice, please.”

“Okay, will that be all?”

“One second,” Jurina turned back around to face Miona, who was sitting in the passenger seat. “You sure you don’t want anything?”

Miona snorted, “It’s 5 am, my body wouldn’t even know what to do with food at this hour.”

“Did you bring breakfast or—?”

“I’ll eat when I get into work, don’t worry.”

“Okay.” Jurina smiled and turned back to the waiting employee on the other end of the speaker. “Nothing else thanks, that’s it.”

“Okay, please pull up to the next counter.”

The CEO pulled away from the curb and drove up to join the line of cars in the drive-thru.

Miona covered her mouth as a yawn threatened to overwhelm her. She had lied earlier—it was currently only 4:37 am. Why there were so many people awake at this hour—and in a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru, no less—was an honest-to-God mystery to her. She still couldn’t believe that she herself was awake.

She blamed her dogs.

Her precious little bundles of canine joy had decided to have a party on her face this morning, which had caused her to startle awake at 4 am. Disgruntled, she’d checked her phone for the time and had noticed an email notification from a Miss Jurina Matsui, CEO. Timestamp was from around midnight.

 

**_To_ ** _: ‘Miona Hori’[mhori@thefirminc.com](mailto:mhori@thefirminc.com)_

**_From_ ** _: ‘Jurina Matsui, CEO’[jmatsui@thefirminc.com](mailto:jmatsui@thefirminc.com)_

**_CC_ ** _: ‘Oba Mina’[moba@thefirminc.com](mailto:moba@thefirminc.com)_

**_Subject_ ** _: Rings Solutions onsite visit_

_A last-minute opening has been made available for the Ring Solutions project. If possible, they’ve scheduled an onsite visit for a small delegation from The Firm in a few hours._

_The address is enclosed, as well as the planned visiting hours._

_Miona, please let me know if you’re available to assist._

_Minarun, please be aware that we might not be able to attend the MANDATORY staff meeting, should the visit run over time._

_Best Regards,_

_J. Matsui_

_Jurina Matsui_

_CEO_

_The Firm, Inc._

 

Miona had absentmindedly pulled up the proposed visiting hours and address and realized that yeah sure, she could make it. Within a minute of her responding to the email, Jurina had sent one right back saying she’d pick her up in ten minutes.

Miona had never gotten ready so quickly in her life.

True to her word, the CEO had pulled up outside her apartment ten minutes later in her Range Rover, wearing a tracksuit and a billion-dollar smile. Turns out the ‘onsite visit’ was to a ‘private sporting facility’ that Ring Solutions had a ‘vested business interest’ in.

Translation: They were going to the WIP.

Now, why they were going to the WIP at 5 o’clock in the morning, you ask?

“The season’s starting pretty soon, so the gyms have been booked like crazy the last couple of weeks. Churi overheard that one of her Ring guys had to reschedule, so she gave me the heads up and… I booked it.” Jurina grinned, as they sat waiting in the drive-thru.

“At 5 am?” Miona wanted her to understand that she was _not_ a fan of the early hour.

“Hey, we get to start the morning off right with some exercise. You’re going to feel so good at work later today, trust me.”

“You’ve…” Another yawn that Miona didn’t even try to hide. “You’ve done this before?”

“Yeah, this was more or less my former schedule before, um… just had to change it up a bit, you know. Work and all that.” Jurina pulled up to the payment window and handed the cashier her card. Miona knew the CEO wasn’t telling her the whole story, but there was nothing much she could do about it at this point. Their friendship was still only in the early stages. They didn’t even have each other’s phone numbers yet.

“We should exchange numbers,” Miona suggested without even really thinking about it.

“Uh, y-yeah, we could. Yeah, we could do that,” the CEO stuttered out as she pulled away from the window.

“It’s just, if you’re going to be messaging me in the middle of night and expecting me to see it, then email is not the way to do it.” Miona laughed as she remembered how she woke up. “You’re lucky my dogs hate me. They’re the only reason I’m here right now.”

“You have dogs?”

“I have dogs,” Miona sighed. “Two dogs. Nicole and Putty.”

“I’m sorry, what? You named your dog… Nicole?”

“And Putty.”

“But Nicole, though,” Jurina pressed, obviously not willing to let this ago. “That’s not a dog name.”

“Oh really? What’s your definition of a dog name, then? Let me hear it.”

Jurina suddenly paled and mumbled something out, refusing to look at her.

Miona testily raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

“Nothing. It’s nothing.”

“Do you have pets?”

“I have… a dog… two dogs, actually.”

“What are their names?”

“Okay. Okay, I’m sorry for making fun of your naming skills. Nicole is a perfectly acceptable—”

“ _Their names, please_.” Miona held fast. No way was she letting her off the hook just like that. She was smug as she waited for the CEO’s obviously embarrassing answer.

Jurina cleared her throat before admitting, “Kuron and Lips.”

Miona’s smirk stretched wider and wider as Jurina seemed to sink lower and lower into her seat. “You named your dog… Lips?”

“I was young and I used to have this giant plushie of a pair of lips and so when I got a dog, I just—”

That’s it. Miona couldn’t hold it in anymore. She burst out laughing, throwing her head back against the headrest. How was Jurina a real person? Almost every new thing she found out about the CEO made her ask that question again and again.

Jurina huffed and pulled up to the last drive-thru window. She collected her order, then drove off. By the time they were back onto the main road, Miona had finally calmed down. Noticing the pout on the CEO’s face—she was pouting even while trying to unwrap her bagel and maybe it was kind of cute—Miona decided to throw her a bone.

“Here,” she grabbed the food bag and placed it onto her lap. When Jurina looked at her questioningly, she said, “I’ll feed you so you can drive properly.”

“Oh no, it’s fine, I can manage—”

“You shouldn’t have to since I’m here. Shotgun responsibility.” Miona glanced through the bag. “What do you want first? You have a lot of options. Like a lot.”

“I’m a big eater.”

“Okay, big eater, what do you want first?”

Jurina smiled, but decided to give in. “Bagel please, Miona-hime~”

 

They parked in front of a pretty average-looking building at 5:01 am.

If it wasn’t for the dozens of other cars parked alongside them, Miona would’ve probably thought it was closed. As they walked up to the entrance, she noticed many of the bumpers they passed had ‘ELITE’ and ‘WIP’ stickers on them.

“You’d warn me if there was like a pet snake or a pet tiger about to jump out at me, right?” Miona asked. She was joking, but not really. Based on her past WIP experiences, she half-expected they were about to walk into a zoo for ‘troubled’ animals.

“You’re going to be disappointed how normal it is.”

“And by normal, do you mean vicious python normal or—”

“I mean normal people working out, normal.” Jurina unceremoniously opened the outside door, then used a keycard to open the inner one. She gestured inside. “Miona-hime’s first.”

Miona hesitantly took her first steps into the WIP gym and was shocked to realize… Jurina was right. Regular gym equipment dotted the walls—weights, benches, balls, bikes, treadmills, the works—with the center of the space reserved for the most unique installations. Three large wrestling rings were staggered next to each other, with punching bags and empty space filling up the rest of the floor.

Miona followed Jurina over to one of the rings and watched as she starting getting ready for her workout. When the CEO pulled out her earbuds, Miona asked a question she’d been thinking of since the drive-thru.

“So what exactly are we going to do here?”

“Workout. That’s why I told you to bring gym clothes, remember?”

“Well yeah, but there has to be a reason we’re using this gym and not the one at work, right?”

“Ding ding ding.” Jurina mimed ringing a bell. “Warmup and I’ll show you, Miona-hime.”

“Fine.” Miona turned to walk towards the bikes. “And stop calling me that.”

 

Miona couldn’t help but do some serious people-watching while she was on the bike.

She wasn’t a creep or anything, it was just really interesting to see the range of body types around her. She knew she was on the skinnier side, but she probably wasn’t the weakest one here. She had some muscle. Probably not enough muscle to take on some of the pro-athlete looking types though, Jurina included.

A half-hour into her biking, her phone buzzed in the cupholder.

It was a text from Jurina—they’d exchanged numbers at a stoplight on the way—telling her to come over to one of the rings.

Miona dismounted and tried not to let her nerves show as she walked over.

Sure, she’d been ready for the CEO to pin her when she’d first met her, but that was when they were alone in the gym at work. There were at least a dozen other people around them now, and Miona was getting a bit of cold feet.

She was surprised to see a familiar, non-Jurina face when she got to the ring.

“Mr. Taguchi.” Miona greeted the Firm exec with a firm handshake.

“Miona,” he smiled down at her. He was dressed in a t-shirt and sweatpants that made it really obvious he was on the more athletic side compared to the others. “Our CEO here tells me that you want to learn how to fight.”

“Uh, no.” Miona shook her head, crossing her arms in an X in front of her. “Definitely not, not even a little bit.”

He laughed, but helped her to step up into the ring anyway.

Once there, she couldn’t help but be impressed by where she was standing. This was kind of cool.

Jurina was already on the other side of the ring, leaning back on the ropes, staring at her like… like… that look in her eyes was _definitely_ not family-friendly. Miona tried not to let it affect her, especially in such a public place, but she never stood a chance, to be honest. The CEO cocked her lips up in a smirk to end all smirks and pushed off the ropes. She started a slow circle around where Miona was standing, and that’s when Taguchi decided to speak up.

“Alright, you want to keep your space with her until you’re ready to challenge.” Wait. Wait, was he coaching Miona? What?

“Challenge? Challenge what? What are you talking about?”

“Don’t let her get too close!”

“Aaahhh!!!” Miona yelled as Jurina dove at her out of nowhere. She dodged it on instinct, but her heart rate nearly shot through the roof. “Wait, what’s happening? JuriNAAA—!”

Miona dodged another attack and found herself falling into the same circling-stalking thing the CEO was doing. She noticed Jurina’s lips quivering as she tried to hold in her laughter. And really? How dare she?

“Are you laughing at me? Seriously?”

“Don’t fall into her tricks, Miona. Stay focused.” Taguchi was walking along the ring on the outside, following the action carefully. “Watch her shoulders.”

“Wait, I think there’s been a mistake.” Miona held her hands up, trying to ward off the CEO. “Weren’t you supposed to teach me the basics first? Remember, you said it was too dangerous, that I had to learn how to like fall and—aaAAHHH!”

Miona suddenly found herself flat on her back, staring right up at the ceiling, Jurina smirking on top of her. “And that’s how you fall.”

Taguchi called out, very much into his self-appointed coaching role, “You got to shake her off, Miona! Don’t let her pin you!”

The only thing she _could_ do was try to catch her breath as she came to terms with the fact that the CEO of her company had literally just knocked her off her feet. Amazing. Said CEO was looking down at her with concern now though, since it was obvious she wasn’t getting up anytime soon.

“Are you alright?”

“What do you… what do you think?” She gasped out.

“I braced you as much as I could, so it’s probably just the shock that’s—”

“You tackled me.”

“Yeah, but it was a safe tackle. One of the first ones we learn when we join.”

“You. Tackled. Me.” Miona still couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth.

“Yeah, but…” And Jurina at least had the decency to look apologetic. “…I’m sorry?”

“You!”

Miona found a sudden strength within her and pushed up, catching Jurina off-guard and flipping her onto her back. She rushed to lie down across her torso, signaling to Taguchi outside the ring.

“Start counting!”

“What—?” The CEO laughed, too shocked to move.

“One!”

“You can’t just—”

“Two!”

“Wait, Miona, wait—” Jurina started trying to get free, but it was too late.

“Three! We have a winner!”

“Yes! Woohoo!” Miona jumped up, bouncing around the ring in celebration. Amidst the blood rushing through her ears, she managed to hear the sound of applause. She looked around and realized that many of the other athletes in the gym were cheering her on. They were all caught up in her silly and unlikely victory. Miona stopped jumping and waved a bit bashfully at her audience, thanking them for the applause.

“Hollywood Jurina is defeated!” Taguchi bellowed as he entered the ring, walking towards Miona. He held up a fake microphone to his face, in full-on announcer mode. “Bested in the space of seconds by the fearsome, the incredible, the so-cute-she’s-deadly…”

Here he pointed the ‘mic’ towards her, obviously waiting for her to provide her ring name. Without hesitation, Miona uttered a definitive, “Miona-hime” and turned to continue her victory lap.

“MIONAAAAA~ HIMEEEEEE~”

As she circled back around near to the felled CEO, she smiled when she noticed Jurina applauding her. Louder than anyone else, too.


	6. That is a very big bear

**Chapter 6 – That is a very big bear**

 

They did manage to make it to the MANDATORY company-wide relations meeting.

And it was all Miona’s doing too, as she’d put her foot down when Jurina had ‘suggested’ that they miss the ‘first few minutes’. Miona was on thin ice as it was, no way was she taking that kind of chance.

To summarize the meeting: Oba Mina’s glares were absolutely terrifying.

She got out of it alive, though, so cheers to that.

Turns out, she wasn’t the only one in a celebratory mood. The first thing she heard once back in her cubicle was the news that the office was throwing a Welcome Interns Party at a popular bar in the city. Honestly, the day she was done with all these intern events couldn’t come soon enough.

Miona sighed as she entered the restroom. Immediately she noticed that all the stalls were occupied.

“Damn it,” she muttered. She really had to go. Like really.

She contemplated making a run for the other restrooms near the elevator, but she doubted she’d make it. So she decided to wait.

The sound of flushing was music to her ears as one of the stalls finally opened up. She quickly walked by one of the suits from marketing and occupied the center stall. She did her business, but when she was done, she couldn’t help but notice how… quiet the restroom was.

She strained her ears to hear anything from the stalls around her, but nothing. She knew there were people in them, she could see their shoes—

“Wait, Miona is that you?”

She pulled in her feet instinctively when she heard her name from the stall to her left.

“Y-yes?”

“Of course it’s you, I know those shoes anywhere.” She didn’t know whether to be impressed or embarrassed that her shoes were so identifiable. “Great timing! I was just about to book an Uber for this party tonight.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right! Miona, you have a car!” That one came from the stall on her right. “Wait, you’re going to the party, right?”

Miona nervously nodded, but then she realized that neither of them could see her. “I’m going, but—”

“Awesome! You mind giving us a ride there? We asked Jim from Finance ‘cause he’s on the same project as us, but he was all, ‘I don’t want to give you the wrong idea’, like what the fuck?” That was from stall right.

“What an idiot,”—and stall left joined in, without missing a beat—“It’s like, it’s a ten minute ride to a company party, Jim, it’s not like we offered to suck your tiny d—”

“Actually,” Miona cut in before she heard things she really didn’t want to hear about her coworkers. “I do have a car, but I didn’t drive to work today… sorry.”

“Oh… That’s fine, I guess.”

“Yeah, totally get that. Shame it had to be today, though.”

“Yeah, shame.” Suddenly the stall twins had flipped a 180. Talkative, bubbly was replaced by passive-aggressive, quiet. And just like that, the conversation was over and Miona could feel the awkwardness starting to set in.

So she decided to leave before it got to be too much. She was done using the toilet anyway.

 

Miona sat down at her desk and before her laptop could even wake up, Sugawara was already at her cubicle. “Heard you turned down the Stepford wives.”

“How could you possibly hear that?”

Sugawara gave her a look that clearly asked, ‘How do you think?’

“I literally just got out of the bathroom and they’re already talking about me?” Miona was kind of impressed, to be honest. “Also, I didn’t turn them down. Not really.”

“They asked you for a ride, you said no.”

“I said no because I don’t have my car.”

“What’s wrong with your car?”

“Nothing’s wrong with my car.”

“Then why don’t you have your car?”

“I don’t…” Miona found herself pausing out of frustration for a moment. Sugawara was her friend, but sometimes she wondered why that was. On paper, she had all the qualities Miona disliked in her other coworkers—nosy, a bit too talkative, not always as observant as she needed to be. Maybe it’s because they’d started the internship early together? But, there was also a third intern who’d started with them whom she hadn’t spoken a word to since their first day.

Maybe there wasn’t a hard-and-fast rule for how friends were made. It just happened and before she knew it, here they were.

Miona turned in her chair and looked at her friend. Her friend who she’d been keeping a lot from. Her friend who was starting to look at her warily, like she was preparing for Miona to retreat into her little shell again. “I got a ride to work today.”

“Oh?” Sugawara’s eyes bugged out comically. “Oh! Like you ‘got’ a ‘ride’?”

Her friend actually did the air-quotes followed by an obscene amount of winking and Miona had to laugh. How were any of these people real? First Jurina, now Sugawara? Did Miona have a built-in magnet for attracting such… unique people?

“No. I mean I got a ride, as in someone picked me up and drove me to work. Completely platonically.”

“Right…” Sugawara playfully rolled her eyes, fully intending on teasing her about this whether she liked it or not. “So who was this knight in shining armor? Wait, no, tell me what they were driving first. I want to figure out your type.”

“My type?” Miona could feel a blush starting to set in.

“Okay, so car or SUV?” Sugawara rolled on.

“SUV…”

“Luxury or…?”

Miona didn’t know why she was entertaining these questions, but that didn’t stop her from answering. “Luxury. Definitely luxury.”

“Ooh~ Nice,” Sugawara winked and Miona just knew her blush was more than obvious now. And then Sugawara launched into the assessment to end all assessments. “Okay, so I’m getting some strong, very strong big-exec type vibes, could be entertainment, but I’m getting more of a business kind of feel. Probably very fit too, now that I think about it, maybe around the arms? Definitely arms. And everywhere else too—but back to business. They’re probably on the younger side, I’d say max five, six years older than you? Good-looking, that’s a given. Not very tall, but there’s not much you can do about that. Could probably use more sun, but hey, that’s just me. So. If I were to give a guess on the job… I’d say… I don’t know, I may be off here, but… CEO?”

Sugawara shrugged as she wrapped up her little speech. She looked at her friend to survey the damage she’d caused.

Miona was frozen, jaw slack, mouth agape and looking at her as if she’d just told her the meaning of life. After a few moments, Miona finally pulled herself together. “You got all that… just from the kind of car they drive?”

“So am I right or am I right?” Sugawara’s smile was uncharacteristically smug, and Miona felt a visceral need to wipe it off her face.  
“Are you right? Are you—”

“Oh, hi Jurina!”

“Please, like I’d fall for that—”

“How’s it going, Sugawara?” The voice of one Miss J. Matsui came from behind her and Miona whipped around so fast she nearly fell out of her chair. Thankfully she didn’t and she was able to confirm that yes, it really was the CEO who had just joined them. Pressed suit, big smile and all. What unbelievable timing. “Two points for not still calling me CEO Matsui.”

“Anything for you, boss.” Sugawara gave a mock-salute and Miona felt like she was in a simulation gone wrong. So she looked quizzically at the CEO to figure out what the hell was going on. The fact that she’d walked up to Miona’s cubicle meant that she was here for her anyway.

Thankfully, Jurina helped her out, “You usually drive, right? I forgot to mention this while we were onsite this morning, but I can give you a ride back home, if you want. Or, if you’re planning on going to the party, I can do that too.” And then she turned to explain to Sugawara too, because of course she would. “We had a project trip this morning, so Miona had to carpool with me today.”

“Yeah, she was just telling me _all_ about it.” Miona threw the nastiest glare she could muster at Sugawara, but her friend was unfazed.

“Really?” Jurina was surprised, obviously not expecting Miona to be so loose-lipped.

“She was guessing,” Miona explained. “I have neither confirmed nor denied any of her outlandish theories, and that’s all I’ll say on that.”

“Right… So, uh, the party?”

“I will be attending.”

“Okay…” Jurina looked a bit confused by the sudden formality. But Miona knew that if they were alone, the CEO would’ve already started calling her Miona-hime, so.

Sugawara raised her hand. “I will also be attending.”

“Great, then I’ll drive you both. Do you know if there’s anyone else who needs a ride?”

“No, just us.” Her friend shook her head, smiling to hide her deception.

“Great!” Jurina clapped her hands. She glanced at Miona once more, “I’ll see you both after work, then?”

“We’ll be right here.” Sugawara waved at the CEO as she turned and left.

Then she turned back to Miona.

“Not a _single_ word out of you,” Miona shut her down. Her friend just laughed as she went back to her own cubicle.

 

“Let me just move a few things,” Jurina said as they got to her Range Rover.

She had her own reserved parking spot in the company’s underground garage, away from all the other common-people cars.

Miona and Sugawara waited as the CEO tossed two gym bags into the trunk. Sugawara gasped as she recognized one of them.

“Hey, isn’t that your—”

“Do you have the address for the bar?” Miona spoke up, cutting her off. She quickly pulled out her phone. “I can pull it up on my phone.”

“It should be in the email,” Jurina responded. Around them, several other cars were starting up and heading out, presumably to the same bar. Jurina closed the trunk and walked around to the driver’s seat. “Okay, we’re all set. Get in.”

Miona instinctively went for shotgun. She only realized it when she closed the door and saw Sugawara smirking at her in the side mirror.

“You got the address?” Jurina asked as she started the car.

“Yeah, don’t worry. You’re taking a left once you get out of here.”

“Is this another one of your shotgun responsibilities?”

“Absolutely. Any trip is only as good as the shotgun. It’s my job to make sure the driver—that’s you—has nothing to worry about and can stay focused on the road.”

“Wow,” Jurina nodded, impressed. Then she threw a question back to Sugawara in the back seat. “Is she normally like this during work?”

“Absolutely not.”

Jurina laughed. Miona huffed and yanked back her seat so it slammed right into Sugawara’s stupid knees.

“OW!”

“Please refrain from any sudden noises so as not to distract the driver,” Miona chastised as she brought her seat back up.

“What if I kill the shotgun? Will that distract the driver?” Her friend seethed.

“I don’t know, let’s ask her.” And Miona turned on Jurina with the sweetest, most dangerous smile on her face.

The CEO visibly paled. “No comment.”

“Good answer,” Miona responded before she could stop herself. It was just too easy to forget she wasn’t alone with the CEO and maybe she shouldn’t be behaving like they were best buddies in front of other people. She glanced back at Sugawara, but thankfully her friend was still rubbing her knees.

When she looked at Jurina though, she saw her smile and mouth the words, ‘Miona-hime~’ to her. Of course.

The rest of the drive was uneventful, right up until they were about two minutes out from the bar.

“Okay, take the next right and then it should be a straight shot to—”

“Uh… this right?” Jurina pointed at the upcoming street blocked by what looked like an angry couple having an argument in the middle of the pedestrian crossing. The car came to a stop, indicator on, ready to make the turn—but forced to wait for the two men to get out of the way.

“That is a very big bear,” Sugawara remarked.

She was talking about the giant teddy bear one of the men held in his hands. He was waving it angrily at his partner, yelling about something or the other.

“They can’t just stand there, they’re blocking the whole street.” Miona was _not_ a fan of what was happening.

“Actually, I think that’s us,” Jurina said as she glanced back at the cars stopped behind her. “Maybe we should just find another way around.”

“There is no other way, it’s a one way street.”

“Okay, then we’ll park and walk—”

“Or we can tell them to move.” Miona leaned over without another word and honked the car horn at them. Several times too. They didn’t even look up. “Unbelievable!”

“Miona, it’s fine—”

“No, it’s not! They’re out in public, they should know how to behave so it doesn’t inconvenience others. If you’re fighting, fine, but there’s no reason why the rest of us should be affected.”

Miona unbuckled her seatbelt and Jurina’s eyes widened in horror.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to tell them to move so you can drive in.”

Miona reached for her door, but Jurina quickly grabbed her hand to stop her. “No, you’re not. Those are two very large, very angry men. No way am I letting you get in the middle of that.”

“Do you have any better ideas?”

“Several!” Jurina reached across and yanked Miona’s seatbelt back on. Then, she pulled the car up as close as she could to the couple—far enough that she was no longer blocking the cars behind her. Then she put the car in park. “You two stay here.” She looked back at Sugawara—who was uncharacteristically quiet in the back seat—and then at Miona, as if making her promise that she’d stay in the car. “I’ll be back.”

Jurina hopped out and the two interns watched as she slowly approached the angry couple.

“Oh my god, Jurina’s going to die,” Sugawara squeaked out.

“She’ll be fine,” Miona brushed her off, still a bit heated. But then the full extent of their current situation sank in and she realized just how dangerous this could get. Jurina was barely any bigger than the two of them—Sugawara was actually a few inches taller. Yeah, she worked out and wrestled, but that was in a controlled environment. This was distinctly _not_ that. There was no telling what could happen. “She’ll be fine.” And that time it sounded like a prayer.

The CEO called out to the two men and they finally looked up.

She had her hands up and seemed to be asking them to do something. She gestured to the sidewalk where a small crowd had gathered, phones out to record what was happening. The teddy bear guy angrily retorted something, but Jurina quickly cut in to calm him back down. She was going all out, flexing her negotiation skills like a champ.

“See?” Miona said as they watched Jurina lead them towards the sidewalk. “Nothing to worry about—”

Suddenly teddy bear stopped walking and spun around angrily to shout something at his partner. Maybe the other guy had said something, maybe he was just getting a second wind in the argument—whatever the case, the tension had suddenly shot up to 11 and Jurina was right in the middle of it. Any second now and they’d probably start—

“Oh my god!” Sugawara shouted as teddy bear guy finally lunged.

“Jurina!”

It happened in the blink of an eye. One second, the CEO was in the line of fire of a very angry teddy-bear-wielding man, the next… Teddy bear guy was down, arms behind his back, face buried in the tummy of the bear and a serious-looking Jurina sitting on top of him.

“Holy shit! Did you see that? She just—oh my god—she just took him down, like—holy shit!” Sugawara was losing it in the backseat. She jumped up and forced her way into the empty driver’s seat for a closer look. “Oh my fucking god, I can’t believe that just happened! Miona, did you see that?”

Miona saw it, all right. She was frozen in her seat, heart still racing a mile a minute. Jurina was saying something to the guy, but they couldn’t hear her from where they were. Also, the crowds on the sidewalks were cheering like mad, so there was that too. Miona couldn’t hear the words, but for some reason all she could imagine was the Jurina who’d pinned her in the WIP gym just this morning. Looking down at her with that smirk, knowing she’d bested her. ‘ _And that’s how you fall._ ’

“Jesus Christ,” she muttered almost involuntarily.

“Come on, we’ve got to help her out!” Sugawara shouted as she leapt out of the car, rushing to the CEO’s side.

It was just Miona in the car now. Taking a moment to herself, she looked up at the ceiling of the car so she wouldn’t have to look at the superb specimen that was Jurina anymore.

“How… is she _real_?”


	7. He used to work here

**Chapter 7 – He used to work here**

 

“What do you like?”

Miona turned to see one of the male interns grinning at her with one of those frat-boy smiles as he gestured to the bar.

“Oh, I’m fine, thanks.” She tried to turn him down gently, but of course that almost never worked with these kind of guys.

“Come on,” he yelled, getting unnecessarily close so she could hear him over the music. “One drink! Just one!”

“I don’t drink!” She yelled back. Maybe he’d understand if she spoke at the same decibel level.

“You don’t drink?” He said it like it was the first time he’d ever met someone like her. “What do you mean you don’t drink? We’re at a bar! This is a party! For us!”

“I don’t—”

“She’s vegan, Conrad, she can only drink like water and herbal tea.” Sugawara swooped in to save the day. Conrad’s eyes widened in shock and horror and Sugawara mimicked him so well, he had no idea she was making fun of him.

“Fucking vegans man!” Conrad said like it wasn’t the first time the scourge of veganism had cost him a free hookup.

“I know, right? Hey, I know for sure the Stepfords aren’t vegans.”

“Ha!” He chortled messily. “I know, man, I already tried them but—” he took a swig of the beer in his cup, “—it’s like pulling teeth with those two, man, I don’t know.”

“Well, looks like Bradley’s getting somewhere,” Sugawara pointed at one of the guys from Marketing who was currently chatting up the gossip queens.

Conrad turned to look, then practically spit out his drink. “Fuck… Fucking Bradley man!”

With his back turned, Sugawara and Miona finally made their escape. They headed for the stairs to the VIP section, nodding at the guy in shades guarding the entrance.

“Wow, now I wish I really was vegan so I could do that all the time,” Miona mused.

“ _Fucking vegans man_.” Sugawara copied their fellow intern perfectly, down to the furrowed brows and constipated-looking scowl. Miona burst out laughing.

And that’s how they walked back into the VIP lounge where the large group of Firm employees had long since split off into smaller subgroups. The intern subgroup had been by themselves at first before branching out and subsuming a few of the other groups. Then, there’d been an effort to move the ‘party’ downstairs to the main bar and dance floor. Miona and Sugawara hadn’t joined in, but they’d had to use the bathroom eventually. That’s what got them downstairs and into their little Conrad encounter.

Now that they were back upstairs though, it became startlingly clear that they didn’t really know any of the employees that were still up here. Sure, they could do the whole small talk thing, but it was already 11 pm. Miona could think of a million other things she’d rather be doing right now than being awkward with her coworkers.

“I’m kind of tired,” she confessed to Sugawara, who nodded in agreement. “Home?”

“Sure. Unless you want to move the party somewhere else?” Her friend did a little dance that was as short as it was embarrassing to look at.

“Definitely home.”

“Don’t hate just ‘cause you’re a vegan—”

“Oh, be quiet,” Miona rolled her eyes as she took out her phone.

“—and everyone knows vegans are no fun. I mean, _fucking vegans man_ , you know? Just like…” Sugawara chuckled, struggling to keep a straight face. “… _fucking vegans man_.”

“You’re never allowed to speak to me again.”

“Are you getting an Uber?”

“Maybe, I was going to check in first with Jurina, though.”

“I think she’s still by the—yeah, she’s still over there,” Sugawara pointed to the huge tropical plants the bar had lining one side of the VIP lounge. That’s where Jurina and the few other execs who’d decided to come were all sitting. Nursing their beers and looking like they were having some scholarly discussions on the state of the union or something. “I can try to get her attention, I think.”

“It’s fine, I’ll just text her.” Miona was perhaps more tired than she realized, since she just blurted that out without thinking.

“Ohhhh.”

“Shut up.”

“You have each other’s numbers.”

“For the project. We get random stuff scheduled at weird hours that we have to check out, so it makes sense.”

“I’m just saying,” Sugawara started, shrugging like she was innocent. “Who else is even on this project? Sure seems like it’s just the two of you—”

“Taguchi’s also on it.”

“Oh, so you have his number too, then?”

Miona bit her lips, annoyed that she didn’t have a comeback for that one. She looked up into her friend’s smug face and said with as much authority as she could muster. “Do you want to go home or not?”

“Sorry, sorry. Do your thing.” Sugawara wandered away to the table of hors d’oeuvres that only had a smattering of cubed cheeses and crackers left.

Miona huffed as she sent off her text to Jurina. It was a simple, ‘ _hey do you think you’ll be ready soon?’_ She was about to follow it up with a ‘ _we’re about to leave so just wanted to check in_ ’ but before she could, her phone started ringing. Jurina was calling.

“Hey,” Miona answered, glancing at the CEO who was starting to get up from her seat. “Wait, you can stay if you want, I just wanted to let you know that we’re leaving.”

“I know. And I’m your ride, so.”

“We can call an Uber.”

“Now why would you do that…” Jurina trailed off as she said her goodbyes to her group and walked over towards Miona. “Why would you do that when I’m right here?”

The CEO smiled and hung up the phone, having finally reached the intern.

Miona rolled her eyes playfully, but gave in. “You’re sober, right?”

“Thank you for checking, but I don’t drink.”

“Are you vegan, too?” Sugawara asked as she swooped back in, nibbling on a Colby-Jack cube like some kind of toddler.

“No,” Jurina looked quizzically between the two of them, sensing there was some kind of joke there she wasn’t getting. “Why is that—?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Miona was shutting this down before it got any worse. “Home? Home.”

 

Sugawara fell asleep within minutes of their drive home.

Jurina was the one who pointed it out. “Your friend didn’t drink too much, did she?”

“Hmm?” Miona glanced back at the almost spread-eagle intern dosing away in the backseat. “No, that’s all sober. Amazing, isn’t it?”

“Did you guys have fun at least?”

“Just because we weren’t drinking doesn’t mean we didn’t have fun.”

“Well, did you?”

“No.”

Jurina chuckled. “These kind of parties not really your speed?”

“I’m more of a table-top party kind of girl.”

Miona thought she was being clever, but the CEO obviously didn’t get what she meant, because she hesitantly asked, “Are you… telling me you’re a stripper?”

“What? No!”

Sugawara snorted in her sleep at the sudden noise, then mumbled a few nonsensical words to herself before quieting down. Jurina covered her mouth, laughing as quietly as she could so as not to disturb the girl. Then she turned to Miona who was still recovering from her boss thinking she was a stripper on the side. “No sudden noises to disturb the driver, remember?”

“I. Am. Not. A. Stripper.” Miona ‘whispered’ as aggressively as she could.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.”

“I play table-top RPGs. We have parties which are just what you call the group of people playing a mission together.”

“Ohhhh, I see. Like a board game.”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“That sounds fun,” Jurina mused. “How often do you play?”

“We got up to once-a-week during my senior year. Then, exams and graduation and everything…”

“Hard to stay in contact?”

“Yeah, but also…” Miona didn’t know what made her want to share this detail with Jurina. It wasn’t a secret so much as it was just something she’d never told anyone about since it had happened. She’d been trying not to think about it, and she’d succeeded so far. But now that she’d found new friends at work, she found that she cared less and less about it. “I kind of lost all my friends before I graduated.”

Jurina raised her brows at this, obviously shocked at the confession. “ _Before_ you graduated?”

“Yeah. They’re all still friends with each other, I’m sure. Just not with me.”

“I’m… sorry to hear that.” Miona really did think she sounded sorry too, which was comforting. “What happened? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“This job happened, actually.”

“They cut you off because you got a job here?”

“Sounds stupid, right? But there’s a lot of context, too.” Miona cleared her throat, no longer able to meet Jurina’s eyes. She instead chose to stare at the navigation app open on Jurina’s phone. “This wasn’t really my first choice job. It was more like… like just in case I didn’t get anything else, you know?”

“A backup.”

“Right. And I know that sounds so pretentious, because it’s crazy hard to get in here, much less get an interview, but… I…” Miona was having more trouble than she thought getting this out. “My dad was… He used to work here. I got the job through him, but I only had to take it if I didn’t find anything else. And I wasn’t going to, I had so many plans to apply to any and everywhere else so long as I didn’t have to work here. But then senior year happened and that all fell through and… Yeah, now I’m here.”

They were at a stoplight, idling as they waited for the lights to change. Miona’s head was bowed, but she could see Jurina’s hand resting on the gearshift. She watched it for any sign of what the CEO might be thinking. But, she wasn’t a very good hand-reader, so.

“Your friends didn’t like that you came here.”

Miona heaved a sigh. “They didn’t like that I still took the job after what happened.”

“…You mean the lawsuit?” Jurina asked carefully. Miona knew she didn’t want to make such a serious guess, but she wasn’t giving her much of a choice with how vague she was being with her story.

“Yeah. The lawsuit.”

“Your father…?”

“He used to be the CEO of The Firm—well, Morgan & Associates before they changed it—but yeah. The suit happened my senior year and that kind of became the only thing we could focus on for a while. And then it was too late and my backup was the only option I had. My friends found out and haven’t talked to me since.” Miona let out a deep breath after she finally got that all out. “Turn right here.”

Jurina obeyed her directions, but then immediately pulled off to the side of the road. She turned to look at Miona after a moment, finding the words she wanted to say. “The lawsuit wasn’t your fault.”

“Try telling them that.” Miona chuckled drily. It wasn’t funny so much as it was just kind of amazing how her life had completely imploded all at once.

“It wasn’t your fault and I’m sorry you had to lose friends over something out of your control.”

“You know what’s the worst part?”

“What?”

“They probably think I don’t care that he got caught, that as long as I can use him to get ahead in my career I don’t care, but my dad is in prison. I care a lot.” Miona stared resolutely out the window as she spoke, not wanting to see the judgmental look she was so used to seeing from her friends who’d found out about her father. Yes, he was a criminal now. Yes, she still very deeply cared for him. “I just want my dad back.”

“You still love him.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah… Anyway. Currently looking for a new party to join.” Miona cleared her throat, wrapping up her spur-of-the-moment confession. She looked down at the maps app open on the phone—they still had another 15 minutes left till they got to Sugawara’s place. “You’re on this for half a mile, then you’re taking the second turn at the—”

“I could be in your new party.”

Miona’s head shot up so fast it left her a little disoriented. A gently smiling CEO was what she saw staring back at her. “You what?”

“We could play one of those board games together, if you want. I only really know Monopoly, but if you tell me the rules, I’ll pick it up.”

“You want to play an RPG with me?”

“No, I want to beat you,” Jurina said, her smile turning smug. But then, a look of confusion washed over her as she wondered, “Wait, it’s not one of those games where no one wins is it?”

“We all win.”

“So I can’t beat you?”

Miona shook her head, a smile finding its way unbidden onto her face. “No, you can’t.”

Jurina let out an exaggerated sigh, making a show of resigning herself to an unfair system. “Fine… We can play together, I guess. You better not try to freeload off of me though—”

“There’s no way you’re really playing an RPG with me.” Miona still didn’t believe this was really happening. She knew Jurina wanted to make her feel better about having no friends, but she didn’t want the CEO to commit to something she probably had no real interest in.

“Why?” Jurina looked affronted.

“You don’t even know what it is.”

“So? You had no idea what pro wrestling was, but look at you—you’ve already beaten me.”

“That doesn’t count.”

“Doesn’t matter. You had fun, right?” Jurina didn’t wait for her to answer. “As long as we’re having fun, as long as we want to be there, who cares? That’s how the WIP works, and I’m assuming that’s how your board games work too.”

And just like that, Miona knew she’d lost this one. Jurina was right.

“You don’t have to do this…”

“And you shouldn’t have to stop doing something you love just because you had shitty friends,” Jurina shrugged.

Miona smiled to herself, wondering just how lucky she was to have found such a genuine person like Jurina. A few moments later, they were back on the road, like nothing had happened. Like she hadn’t just revealed her biggest secret. Two turns later, Miona asked a question that she didn’t want to leave unanswered from this little heart-to-heart. “What about my dad?”

“What about him?”

“If you think about it, It makes sense not wanting to hang out with someone with a criminal background.” In a way Miona could completely understand why her friends ditched her. “It’s fine if you want to take me off the project.”

“Why would I do that?”

Miona fixed her with an obvious look. “I’m serious. It’s bad for business.”

“You let me worry about what is and isn’t bad for the company, okay?”

“I won’t be mad, I promise—”

“Miona-hime.” Jurina’s voice was the closest thing to her serious-business voice that Miona had ever heard. The fact that she was using _that voice_ with _that nickname_ almost made her want to laugh, but she held it back when she saw the serious-business look on her face too. Whatever she had to say, she obviously wanted Miona to hear it.  “If you were bad for business, Minarun wouldn’t have hired you in the first place. She trusts that you’ll be a benefit to the company during your time here and I trust—no, I know… that you’ve got a lot to offer. Don’t count yourself out yet.”

The confident way in which it was said made it almost impossible for Miona to disagree. And she found that she really didn’t want to, anyway. Jurina believed in her. Despite the fact she’d just confessed to being related to the guy whose job she’d taken over. Despite the fact she’d revealed how much she hadn’t wanted this job in the first place. Despite all of that, she still believed in her. It made Miona feel a bit guilty that she didn’t have as much confidence in herself as the CEO had in her.

And why didn’t she?

Why’d she let herself get so down about everything that she’d already written herself off?

She was better than that.

“I’m a bit surprised your friend managed to sleep through all of that. Are you sure she didn’t take anything?” The CEO asked a few moments later.

“No, she…” Miona was about to reassure Jurina once again, but she stopped herself. Yeah sure, Sugawara slept like the dead, but there’s no way she would’ve missed all of that. She’d been watching Miona’s interactions with the CEO like a hawk since they’d gotten to the bar. They both hadn’t had anything besides water to drink. And Miona felt fine. Now that she thought about it, Sugawara had fallen asleep almost as soon as they’d gotten into the car. Almost like… Almost like she was _pretending_ to sleep so she could eavesdrop on their conversation.

And Miona had said a lot. Like a lot, a lot.

“Can you check on her?” Jurina asked innocently.

Miona grimaced. She didn’t want to confirm whether or not she was right and Sugawara was awake. But… it’s not like she could take back her words if she was.

So she steeled herself, turned around to look and then, “Oh my god.”

She burst out laughing. Sugawara still had her seatbelt on, but had somehow gotten so badly positioned and tangled up in it that her arm looked like it was broken and her head looked like it was seconds away from decapitation. It’s not like she was comfortable either, since Miona could see the heavy frown on her face. The longer she looked, the more she could see Sugawara’s face muscles tensing with the effort to not react to the pain she was in. She was obviously awake, but was trying desperately to not look like it.

“How’s she doing?” The CEO asked, briefly glancing back in the rear-view mirror, but not being able to see much in the darkness.

Miona smirked. “Oh, she’s fine, don’t worry.”

A low groan sounded from the backseat, but Miona had no trouble pretending that it was just the sound of the engine and _not_ her friend’s desperate cry for help.


	8. So... donuts?

**Chapter 8 – So… donuts?**

 

Miona woke up to the sound of an earthquake.

Only, it wasn’t really an earthquake, it was just her phone vibrating like crazy on her bedside table. She stared at it for a while, wondering who on this cursed Earth could be blowing up her phone like that—and then it started buzzing again.

She grabbed it before it could fall off the table and opened it to see twenty-five (25) messages from Sugawara.

The first simply said: ‘ _I can’t move my neck and it’s all your fault -_-_ ’

And then, over the course of a half hour, she’d described her efforts trying to shower, trying to look at her toes, looking up a masseuse, waking up her roommate, bribing her roommate into driving her to the masseuse and asking the price for the cheapest neck massage. The last text she’d sent only said _‘:o’_ and Miona didn’t know what to make of that one.

Well, she didn’t know what to make of it until about ten minutes later when a Venmo notification came in charging her $150.00 for an emoticon of a bed and a smiley-face. Miona’s sure she made the same :o face without even realizing it.

Miona was halfway into typing up her ALL CAPS, angry-emoticon-filled response when the phone on her bedside table started buzzing like crazy. Except, it obviously couldn’t be her phone because her phone was in her hand.

So…

Whose phone was that…?

“Oh my god, I stole Jurina’s phone.” Miona’s eyes widened once the realization hit her. She slowly recalled the events from the night before—the interns party, the drive home, her out-of-the-blue confession, navigating the way home with Jurina’s phone and… obviously forgetting to give Jurina her phone back. She scoffed at herself, “Maybe I am a criminal…”

Miona slowly walked over to the stolen device and saw the blinking light indicating there were quite a few notifications waiting to be read. Her first instinct was to text Jurina and tell her that she had her phone, but that obviously wouldn’t get her anywhere. Then, she thought of emailing her, but she didn’t really want to have to explain to HR why she had the CEO’s phone should they read her email.

“If I knew her address…” Miona mused as she walked into her living room, both phones in hand. She was almost eerily calm considering the fact that it felt like Jurina’s phone was buzzing faster than her heartbeat. Miona hoped this wasn’t a sign that there was some kind of crisis happening that desperately needed the CEO’s attention. Maybe this was just business-as-usual and she had nothing to worry about.

She pressed the power button just to see how bad it was—258 emails, 33 texts, 17 missed calls? This was fine.

Then a call came in from “Minarun~” and Miona froze as the phone rang out in her hand. Her dogs eventually came running over to her, sniffing at her feet and wondering why she was just standing there and not feeding them like she usually did in the mornings. She looked down and said in the calmest voice possible. “Your mom’s a criminal, Nicole.”

Nicole, her dog, just cocked her head because of course she couldn’t care less about whatever trouble Miona had gotten into. As long as she was well-fed, nothing else mattered.

The phone soon stopped ringing and a voicemail came in, followed by a text message that simply said, “Call me now”.

This was fine.

“Maybe Sugawara knows where she lives,” Miona said, fishing out her own phone. She was far past caring what her friend might say to tease her. This was officially an emergency and she wanted to fix it before she really started panicking. She deleted the draft of her previous message and was just about to send off an ‘ _SOS: Need Jurina’s address @ now_ ’ when her doorbell rang. As if she didn’t have enough to worry about.

“I just woke up, why is everything happening?” She moaned out as she jogged over to the door. She looked through the peephole and—

She flung the door open, “Jurina!”

The CEO looked surprised by the enthusiastic greeting, but recovered quickly. She was dressed head-to-toe in wrestling merch and was holding up four Dunkin’ Donuts to-go bags, an irritatingly carefree smile on her face. “Heard you kidnapped my phone, so I brought food for ransom.”

“Wait… you heard? From who?” Miona’s spidey-senses were tingling. This was beyond suspicious.

“Okay, so I may or may not have intentionally forgotten to get it back from you last night. Donuts?” Jurina stepped into the apartment with an innocent smile on her face. She looked around the small place in exaggerated awe, ignoring the mounting fury on Miona’s face. “Can I put these on the table—”

Miona slammed her door shut, silencing everyone in the house, including her poor dogs.

“You did this on purpose?”

“No… Okay, I know how I made it sound, but I honestly just forgot to get my phone back. Sure, I remembered a couple minutes after I dropped you off, but I figured I could just swing by in the morning. With donuts, you know?” Jurina smiled hesitantly, once again showing off her Dunkin’ Donuts haul like that was enough of a reason to forgive her. Okay, maybe it was.

Miona walked over to the CEO and took one of the bags from her. “…What kind of donuts?”

“All kinds of donuts. You didn’t tell me what you liked last time so I got one of everything.”

“What if I only like one kind?”

“Then more for me,” Jurina shrugged. She sat down on the main piece of furniture in the room—the couch. Miona hadn’t gotten around to buying a dining table yet, so she’d just been having all her meals on the couch in front of her TV. Jurina didn’t comment on her lack of real-people furniture and for that she was glad.

“Are you really going to eat all of these donuts? How many did you get?” Miona sat down beside the CEO and together they looked through the bags. “Hold on, let me grab a plate.”

Miona sprang back up to her feet and rushed into the kitchen. She picked out the largest plate she had in her cupboard and quickly wiped it down with one of her towels. As she made her way back to the living room, she saw that Jurina had found her phone on the coffee table. The CEO had a concerned look on her face as she scrolled through her notifications.

“Are you always this popular or did you get a ton of people to call just to freak me out?” Miona hoped it was the former. But, as the seconds passed and Jurina remained silent, she could tell that this was a bit out of the ordinary. “So… donuts?”

“Hmm?” The CEO looked up, then seemed to remember where she was. She put on an unconvincing smile and pocketed her phone. “Right. Donuts.”

Four bags, one plate, an undetermined number of pastries. One by one, they pulled out a donut out of a bag and placed it as optimally as they could on the plate. The donuts kept coming and soon they had a nice tower going. They set to the task like it was the most important thing in the world and Miona could see Jurina’s smile getting more and more genuine by the second. By the time they got to the final donut, they were on their feet trying to figure out the best angle to place it to complete their artwork.

“Tilt it up a bit more?”

“Like this?” Jurina tried out the new position with the chocolate confectionery and looked to Miona for her approval.

“Put it on its edge maybe? Like the Lord of the Rings.”

“The Lord of the Rings?”

“That eye tower thing? You know what I’m talking about,” Miona waved dismissively.

Jurina snorted, but followed her instructions to a tee. When she was done, they had their very own Eye of Sauron sitting on a tower of donuts. It was beautiful.

Miona took a picture of it from almost every angle. She bent down to take one from below and laughed when she saw Jurina pretending to be Godzilla terrorizing their little donut city. And then it turned into a photoshoot of Jurina stomping and making outrageous faces, until finally she took a bite off of the top donut and ‘conquered’ the city.

“How is it?” Miona asked as she stood back up, looking through her photo gallery.

“Mdelishous,” Jurina mumbled, giving a thumbs up. She swallowed her bite, then said far more clearly, “You should try one.”

“Remember, you’re going to be the one eating most of this,” Miona said as she surveyed the tower for her donut of choice.

“You were serious about that?”

“I nearly had a heart attack thinking the company was in ruins because I had your phone and no way to get it back to you. Yes, I want to see you choke on these donuts.” Miona was ruthless.

Jurina chuckled, but didn’t argue back. “Fine, fine. Challenge accepted.”

She took off her jacket, leaving her in just her shirt and giving Miona a very nice view of her ‘big guns’. Maybe her day was getting better already.

“Just to be clear, though. The company isn’t in ruins, is it…?” Miona hesitantly asked. She wanted to get this off her conscience as soon as possible, but wasn’t sure if she was ready for the real answer. The CEO didn’t look all that worried now, but she’d obviously been affected by some of the messages on her phone.

“The company? No, the Firm’s doing fine.”

“But…”

Jurina sighed, giving in. “A video may be going around from last night.”

“A video? Of what?” Miona tried to think back to anything video-worthy that may have happened at the party. Besides Conrad striking out on her and literally every other female intern, nothing much had happened. “The party was pretty tame.”

“Not from the party. Before.”

“Before…” And then the lightbulb went off in Miona’s head. She gasped, “The teddy bear fight.”

Jurina solemnly nodded. “A few videos got posted online and someone from the bar recognized me and now there’s this story going around about a pro wrestling CEO…”

“Oh my god,” Miona covered her mouth in shock. “I thought you said the company was fine.”

“It is, it is!” Jurina rushed to reassure her. “It’s just… I’m kind of a little… famous now? Or viral, or whatever. I don’t really know how to feel about it, to be honest.” Jurina was trying to laugh it off, but it was clear that she was a bit unsettled by her sudden online popularity. “Minarun’s been working on taking the videos down, but you know how the internet works.”

“I’m so sorry, this is all my fault.” Miona felt horrible that this had happened because of her. Because she’d been upset that that couple was fighting in the middle of the street. They could’ve just parked and walked like Jurina had suggested, but no.

“Who knows, this could be great press for the company. A CEO who really exemplifies the Firm way, you know.”

“Except we’re not a pro wrestling company,” Miona pointed out.

“Well no, but…” Jurina was obviously fishing for something positive out of this mess. She absentmindedly grabbed the half-bitten donut from the tower and turned it over like she was examining it. “If you think about it though, this is kind of what would’ve happened if I became the WIP champion. Maybe not really the same thing, but like… it wouldn’t be a secret anymore. There’d be a lot of press, too and Minarun would still be sending me strongly-worded messages.”

Jurina smiled and bit into her donut.

“Yeah, about that… How is you being champion supposed to work with you also being CEO?” This was just one in a long list of things that Miona wasn’t sure about in Jurina’s grand Ring Solutions project plan.

“As long as it doesn’t distract for my responsibilities to the company, it’ll be fine.”

“HR won’t like it.”

“I think it’d be easier to list the things that HR _does_ like about me,” Jurina smirked. “Here, I can do it on one hand.” She finished off her donut and raised her hand to count. “One, I’m a great speaker—”

“That’s true,” Miona nodded. She could see the CEO was really gearing up to get into her shortlist of qualifications, so she sat down on the couch to watch the show.

“Two, I’m a great negotiator and I can get the board to agree on almost anything. Actually, let’s split those up. That was two and three, okay?”

“Sure.”

“Great, so four…” Jurina paused with her four fingers held high and Miona could practically see the gears turning like mad in her head.

“Four?” Miona prodded, smirking at the mental breakdown that was happening in front of her. When the CEO could think of nothing after a few moments, Miona took pity on her. “You’re very… Firm. Definitely, the Firmest person I’ve ever met.”

Jurina smiled in a way that said she knew that that was a made-up answer. But, she allowed it, holding up her fifth finger to move on to the next one. “And five?”

Crowd-sourcing this one too, she waited for Miona to come up with the last one. With a smirk, Miona gestured to their donut tower. “Five, you can eat an entire tower of donuts in thirty minutes.”

Jurina’s face paled so fast, it was comical. “Th-thirty minutes?”

“It’s what a champion would do, after all.”

“I think we have very different definitions of what it means to be a champion, but… Okay, let’s do this.” Jurina let out a deep breath, slowly approaching the tower. “Wait, you have to pick one, remember? That was our deal.”

“Fine,” Miona plucked the simplest, lowest-calorie donut she could find from the tower. She sat back and nibbled elegantly at the deep-fried pastry. She could see Jurina giving her the stink-eye, but she ignored her in favor of bringing up the stopwatch app on her phone. “Ready?”

“If it’s what Miona-hime wants, then—”

“And go!”

 

Miona watched as Putty licked the leftover donut-sugar off her fingers. She’d eaten half before feeding the rest to her dogs.

That had been around the time that Jurina had started having trouble getting down hers and the thought of eating more fried food just wasn’t that appealing. She looked back at the CEO who was groaning as she fought through her last five donuts. She’d adopted a dunking strategy where she would tear off bits of the pastry, dunk it in water to make it go down easier, then speed-chew till she was ready for the next bite. Miona admired her strength and determination, but this had to stop before she literally burst.

Three minutes were left on the clock, but Miona knew that if she announced it, then Jurina would just try to go faster.

“Time’s up,” she said instead.

Jurina immediately started shaking her head, disagreeing strongly. “Mmore timph.”

“No, you’re out of time, please stop eating.”

The CEO swallowed her bite and let out a truly agonizing sound. Miona thought it sounded like she was dying. “I’m almost done… so close…”

Jurina’s hand reached for another donut and Miona reacted before she could think about it. She swung her hand up, knocking the plate off the coffee table and onto the floor. It clattered loudly as it came to a rest, the last four donuts spread out on the floor. “Oops.”

Nicole and Putty ran in like firefighters to the rescue, snapping at the pastries and tearing them to pieces. Miona made a note to treat them to a special snack later for their service.

Jurina, though, was not happy. She groaned out loud, letting her head fall back on the couch, “Nooooo! Nicooooole!”

“That’s Putty,” Miona clarified. She chuckled at the sight of the CEO reclined in a food-coma-induced exhaustion. “The one licking the plate is Nicole.”

“I’ve failed you, Miona-hime…”

“And now for your punishment—”

“More punishments? When will it end?”

“Hey, my house, my rules. Don’t like it, don’t come here.” Miona shrugged, swiftly laying down the law. Outwardly, she was smug, but inside, she had a moment of worry that Jurina would just opt to never come back to her apartment. This visit was unexpected, but definitely not something that she was against happening again in the future. It was nice. Hopefully the CEO wouldn’t take her words too literally.

“Fine, lay it on me.” Jurina smiled lazily, showing off her usual down-for-whatever attitude. Miona found it kind of addicting. It made her feel like no matter what she asked her to do, Jurina would be willing to entertain her. It made her push for more, it made her want more. It made her greedy. Miona only hoped that they wouldn’t end up taking it too far.

She hoped that one of them would know to stop before that happened.

“Let’s watch that video,” Miona suggested.

“That video? You don’t mean…”

“Your fifteen minutes of fame? Yes, I do.”

Jurina groaned, but did end up pulling out her phone. “Come over here, I’m scared of what my body will do if I move.”

“That makes me want to stay very far away.”

“Noooo, don’t make me laugh,” Jurina sobbed.

“Fine, fine.” Miona scooted over on the couch until their shoulders were almost touching. Then she got even closer so she could see the small screen of Jurina’s phone in her lap. “You’ve got to hold it up so I can see.”

“I’m so tired. Hold it up for me please, Miona-hime~”

Miona sighed but did as requested, holding up Jurina’s hand holding her phone. She watched as the CEO one-handedly navigated through her messages with Minarun until she got to a video link. Miona clicked it for her to speed things up and together they watched the viral ‘ _Insane! CEO wrestles teddy bear attacker to the ground!_ ’ video.

They laughed in disbelief at the fact that the internet had managed to latch on to this 2 minute and 16 second video.

“So this has to be the Rainmaker, then?”

Jurina looked momentarily surprised that she’d actually gotten the name right. “I could show it to you, right now.”

“You can’t move.”

“I can’t move,” Jurina reluctantly agreed. “Okay, when I can move, I’ll show it to you.” She nodded to herself, apparently already deciding when that would be. “Tomorrow? We can play that board game too.”

“Sure.” And just like that, Miona had agreed to spending most of her weekend with one Miss J. Matsui. It didn’t feel as momentous as it sounded, though. In fact, it felt like the most natural thing in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy 22nd Birthday Jurina!


	9. Final stretch before we really start going

**Chapter 9 – Final stretch before we really start going**

 

“194… 195…”

Miona groaned out as she pushed her body into another sit-up. She was sweating like mad and she’d definitely need to have a shower after this, but she kept going.

“22… 23…” The sound of slower counting came from the person on the pull-up bar and Miona tried to ignore it as she focused on her own workout.

“196… 197…”

“24…”

“195…” Miona didn’t realize she’d miscounted until she heard a snicker from the pull-up bar. That’s it. “Can you keep it down over there?”

Jurina looked smug even as her arms trembled on the pull-up bar. “You’re almost there Miona-hime… don’t let me distract you.”

“Then stop trying to distract me.”

“25!” Jurina yelled as she pulled through her last pull-up and finally jumped off the bar. She was all-smiles as she stumbled wearily over to Miona’s mat by the mirrors. Miona tried to ignore her, but she honestly had no idea what number sit-up she was on and if Jurina made her have to start all over again— “You’re on 198, you got this. Just a few more and you’re done.”

Miona fell back onto her mat. She was hoping that her knees would hide the small smile that had blossomed on her face. This was something she hadn’t known she’d needed until it had started happening. Jurina, her very own gym hype-man to help her get through her tough sets. Sure she could be annoying sometimes, but the majority of their workout sessions together had consisted of the CEO calling out encouragements to keep her on track. It was nice.

“199…” Miona sat up and she saw that Jurina was now squatting in front of her, holding on to her feet so they wouldn’t slip while she was moving. Smiling like she was having the time of her life. Miona knew there was no way she could hide the smile on her own face now.

“One more, Miona-hime, come on.”

“Stop smiling at me.” Miona didn’t really mean that, but she had to say something. They were just being silly at this point.

“Make me. Do the last sit-up and I’ll never smile again.”

“Liar,” Miona huffed out as she fell back onto her mat. She took a short moment to rest and she could feel Jurina’s hands pressing down on her feet. Pushing her to keep going. “Okay…”

“Push through it, let’s go—”

“200!” Miona sat up so fast, she could see the surprise on the CEO’s face. The face that was pretty close to her own, now that she thought about it. She stayed like that for a moment, catching her breath and watching Jurina watch her. “… No more smiling.”

Jurina scrunched up her face and Miona didn’t want to admit how much she liked how silly they could be around each other. She really, really liked this. “How’s this? Is this better?”

“You look like you smelled something bad.”

“Well…”

“Hey!” Miona shoved the CEO hard and could only scoff as she watched her transition into a smooth back roll like she was some kind of seasoned gymnast. Jurina finished it off with a pose, her hands spread wide. Miona scoffed. “Between the two of us, who do you honestly thinks smell worse?”

“Just because I smell like death doesn’t mean you smell like roses either, Miona-hime.” Jurina started backing up as she said it, so she knew the wrath she was incurring. “But yes, you smell better than me, congratulations.”

“You’re lucky my core hurts too much for me to come after you,” Miona said, rubbing her stomach.

“Stretching time?” Jurina got her own mat out and Miona was reminded yet again of how much she loved that she’d found someone who loved stretching as much as she did.

“Stretching time.”

Halfway into their stretches, Miona asked the question she’d asked every day since Monday. “Did you get recognized today?”

“Ugh…”

“So, that’s a yes?”

Jurina had an unimpressed look on her face and Miona knew what that meant. Ever since the week had started, it seemed like everyone and their mom had watched Jurina’s viral teddy bear video. Multiple times. It was now commonplace for the CEO to receive odd looks in the elevator and in the cafeteria. So many people had seen it that Minarun had sent out a company-wide email about it. She’d acknowledged that yes, their CEO was currently a viral sensation but no, that did not mean that they could ask her to throw them on the ground. Miona had turned a bit red when she’d read that part.

The side-effect of her sudden popularity, however, was that it made it a bit uncomfortable for Jurina to be around her coworkers outside of structured meetings. So, she’d taken to adjusting her schedule for minimal contact. That meant taking the stairs, ordering in for lunch and doing her workouts in the wee hours of the morning or much, much later after work. Miona still felt pretty sorry for causing this whole mess, so she’d decided to tag along so Jurina didn’t feel too lonely. WIP season was starting soon and the CEO had started getting in two, sometimes three, workouts a day. Miona had never been more in shape and it had only been four days.

“I had a meeting today… one of the Finance guys had to do a presentation so he hooked up his laptop to the big screen in the conference room…” Jurina rolled her eyes and Miona was already laughing. “Guess what was still up on his browser.”

Okay, maybe Miona didn’t feel all that guilty about making her boss into a viral phenomenon. “Was it porn?”

“I wish!” Jurina sprawled out into a starfish stretch, eyes closed and looking like she’d decided to give up on humanity.

“You wish that your employees were watching porn during work hours?”

“No, that is not an invitation.”

“Wonder what HR would think.”

“You know what HR thinks of me,” Jurina scoffed, transitioning into trying to make a snow angel on her yoga mat.

“Sugawara thinks you’re amazing, by the way.” Miona had been meaning to tell her about her friend’s new obsession. “She may or may not have a giant crush on you.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Miona got to her feet, rolling up her mat. She glanced at Jurina in the mirrors and was just in time to catch the CEO’s appreciative glance at her outfit. Maybe Miona had upped her workout outfit game this week. Maybe.

“Tell her thanks… but I don’t date my coworkers.”

“Who said anything about dating?” Miona raised a teasing brow as she put away her mat. Afterwards, she walked over to one of the two water fountains in the huge gym.

“Well, in that case…”

Miona bent down to sip at the water from the faucet. The sound of the fountain was pretty loud so there was no way she’d be able to hear what the CEO was saying while she drank. Thankfully, Jurina waited until she was done. When Miona straightened up, wiping her mouth, she saw that Jurina was now sitting up, dimpled grin on display.

“Well in that case… tell her that I’m available.”

Miona knew she was testing her. She narrowed her eyes and they fell into a brief stare down, before Miona went in for the kill. “I’m calling HR.”

“You say that like you’re telling my mom on me,” Jurina laughed. “Minarun’s not my mom.”

“She’s the only one that can control you, so she might as well be.” Miona walked back over to Jurina and nonchalantly started rolling up her yoga mat, too. She ignored the warm feelings in her stomach at the grateful smile the CEO threw her way. “What’s the story there, anyway? You two seem pretty close.”

“That’s because we are.”

“College buddies?”

“Earlier than that.”

“High school?”

“Would you believe me if I told you that Minarun was the first friend I ever made?”

“No way.” Miona knew there was an age difference between Jurina and their head of HR, so the likelihood of that happening was slim.

“Okay, so maybe not first friend, but first real friend? Or like, you know when you meet someone and you just know they’re going to be in your life for a very long time?” Jurina asked.

Miona tried not to immediately answer because yes, she knew exactly how that felt. Instead, she played it cool and said, “So like a BFF.”

“Sure. Minarun was my first ever BFF.” Jurina smiled, already going down memory lane. “She helped me decide which college to go to, gave me advice on which program to do and, when I graduated and couldn’t find a job, she hooked me up with my first internship. Not here, of course, but at a smaller company on the other side of the river.”

“That’s sweet…” Miona couldn’t help but notice how Oba Mina had apparently been both of their internship-guardian angels. What were the odds?

“Yeah, I owe a lot to her, which is part of why I agreed to take this job. Forgive me for bringing this up, but it wasn’t exactly the easiest thing trying to find a replacement CEO… Company stocks weren’t the greatest and trades were saying we were one step away from bankruptcy…” Miona bowed her head as she listened to her words. She couldn’t help the flash of shame she felt when someone brought up what her father did. Sure, she had nothing to do with it, but still… Jurina wasn’t rubbing it in though, she was just telling her own story. And Miona was trying not to let her past control her anymore, so she put it out of her mind. “And I’m honestly pretty green for this kind of position… But Minarun believed in me, put in some very good words for me with the board, and here I am. Regardless of my history, I’m here now and that’s all that matters.” Jurina nodded as if reaffirming her convictions. That’s one thing Miona really liked about her—she was more determined than anyone she’d ever met. “So, yeah… Minarun’s pretty cool.”

“You’re pretty cool, too.” Miona whispered that without really thinking about it. She knew Jurina heard it because of the annoying smile that stretched across her face a few seconds later. But, she didn’t take it back. She could let her have this one.

“Thanks, Miona-hime… Want to see my private locker room?”

“Why would you ruin it?” Miona asked, exasperated. She shook her head at the faux-innocent look on the CEO’s face. “There was a moment happening and you just—”

“What? It’s an honest question. I remember you were curious about it, so I thought I’d show you.” Jurina got to her feet, jogging over to an almost seamless door in the wall. “Just letting you know, you’re the first girl I’m letting in here.”

“Sure you don’t want to save that for Sugawara?”

“Oh, you’re right... Maybe I should—”

“Shut up and open the door,” Miona huffed, getting to her feet.

 

Miona tried her best to cover her yawn as she walked through the office.

One immediate downside to her new workout regime was how tired she got nowadays. It was only a little after 9 and she was already yawning like she hadn’t slept in days. She _had_ slept, but she’d also gotten in an early workout at the WIP gym with Jurina this morning.

Either she needed to start sleeping 10 hours a day or she’d need to find a way to inject coffee directly into her veins, because her current caffeine dosage was not working.

She stepped into the photocopy room and let loose the biggest, baddest yawn of all. She wiped her eyes as she finished. “Oh my god, this is ridiculous.”

She shook her head and set to work making copies of the final draft of the Ring Solutions project proposal that Jurina had emailed her. Apparently they had an important meeting this afternoon and they needed to have this finalized before then. Miona just hoped she could catch a quick nap during lunch so she didn’t fall asleep in the meeting.

The door opened and Miona blearily looked up to see Sugawara walking in, stack of papers in hand. Her friend immediately smiled when she saw her. “Would you look who it is.”

“Sugawara, why so loud…?”

“I’m sorry, is this better?” Sugawara ‘lowered’ her voice, speaking in a stage-whisper. She quickly reverted back to her normal speaking tone afterwards, though. “Haven’t seen you in forever, I thought you got fired.”

“Is that what the rumors are saying about me?”

“Oh no, they don’t care about you these days. Big topic on the block is ye ole teddy bear boss.”

Miona couldn’t help the snicker that left her lips. Viral Jurina would never not be funny to her it seemed. “HR said we should stop talking about it, remember?”

“No, HR said we should stop talking to Jurina about it. Big difference.” Sugawara dropped her papers on a side desk, finding more value in constantly clicking a random ballpoint pen. “Speaking of ye ole teddy bear—”

“Stop calling her that, she won’t like it.”

Sugawara just looked at her, brow raised. “You’re not even trying anymore. How’s the project coming?”

“Final stretch before we really start going.” Miona did a fairly lackluster fist-pump as the first set of copies finished up. “What do you mean I’m not trying?”

“Does TBB know you like her?”

“TBB…?”

“Teddy bear boss, keep up. Does she know you want to get in her pants yet or is it just kind of understand at this point?”

Miona narrowed her eyes at her friend but Sugawara remained unfazed, still clicking away at her pen. Sometimes Miona regretted letting her friend know so much about her life. This was one of those moments. “You were at that company relations meeting, right? You didn’t fall asleep or something?”

 “Oh, I was. But I also have eyes. And ears. And common sense.”

“Really?” Miona scoffed.

“And you and TBB? Major relations.”

“No relations,” Miona denied.

“Really, really big relations. Very sizeable.”

Miona rolled her eyes—there was no changing Sugawara’s mind once she was set on something. She contemplated how to go about debunking her friend’s theory, but she also knew that too much denying would be as good a confirmation as any.

In the end, she decided to just go for honesty. “Nothing can happen between us, anyway.”

Sugawara obviously wasn’t expecting for her to give in so quickly, so she just stood there for a moment, stunned. Eventually, Miona finished up with her copies and moved away from the machine to get her papers together. Sugawara didn’t start on her own stuff though, she just watched her. “Did she tell you that?”

“I’m telling you that.” Miona clarified. “You remember what I said in the car, right? About my dad?”

Sugawara nodded.

“Well, that’s all you need to know about why this won’t work. The last thing I need is another scandal.” Miona didn’t mean to sound so serious, but it was the truth. She came into this internship fully intending to fly under the radar until she could leave. Getting involved with Jurina was not—and could never be—a part of that plan.

Sugawara’s face morphed into a look of understanding. “But you do like her.”

“Who doesn’t?” Miona shrugged. Then, she smiled and tried to get the mood back up, “By the way, I told her about your huge crush on her.”

Sugawara eyes widened so much she looked like a cartoon character. “You didn’t!”

“Want to know what she said?”

“You told TBB that I think she’s the finest specimen to ever walk into this building and HR _hasn’t_ thrown me out yet?” Sugawara shook her head in disbelief as she brought her papers over to the machine. “She really does like me, huh? Sorry, Miona.”

Miona rolled her eyes, but continued chatting with Sugawara until she was done with her papers too. She’d missed this. Being able to share and joke about things without having to worry about losing a friend. It was nice.

 

The meeting was being held in the large conference room.

Judging from the glass walls and central location, Miona hoped the chances of another wild animal encounter was slim.

She arrived fifteen minutes ahead of time and was surprised to see another woman already in the room, waiting. Miona almost mistook her for another Firm employee, but then realized where she had seen her before. Jurina’s phone. That picture of her wrestling partner she’d shown her way back when they’d first met.

Miona snuck a glance as she got her laptop set up. That was definitely her.

Just when she was about to introduce herself, Jurina walked in and whatever warmth there’d been in the room suddenly disappeared. The two wrestling partners looked at each other once, then never again as they waited for the meeting to start.

This wasn’t like their meeting with Bird Takayanagi. No introductions, no business smiles, no efforts made to even try to maintain a friendly atmosphere. Miona felt too nervous to even clear her throat.

Minarun, Taguchi and Bird Takayanagi (sans demon bird) did eventually show up too, and the mood got a little better. The other woman was mid-conversation with the head of HR when Jurina turned her notepad towards Miona. She must’ve sensed her unease because she’d written, ‘ _Sorry for the sudden meeting, she said it was an emergency_.’

Miona glanced over to the other half of Powerstones—her?—and then back at Jurina. The CEO nodded as if to confirm that, _yes, that’s her_.

Jurina discreetly took back her notepad and wrote on it so Miona could see it, ‘ _I think Powerstones is_ ’

“Alright, should we get started?” Oba asked, looking around the room.

“Sure thing.” Jurina nodded. She jotted down the rest of her note then got up to walk to the front of the table. It took Miona a few moments before she was able to sneak a glance and read the rest of it. When she did, she had to work to conceal the shock she felt.

‘ _I think Powerstones is disbanding_ ’


	10. tomorrow is saturday

**Chapter 10 – tomorrow is saturday**

 

Powerstones was a pro wrestling tag-team duo that Jurina created after a failed solo season in the WIP.

She’d just gotten a new job in a pretty high-up exec position and had also coincidentally decided to go pro in the WIP after years of training. At the same time. She’d severely underestimated how demanding each of those things would be individually. And when she’d tried to do them both… it didn’t end well.

A misstep in one of her moves landed her in the hospital with a pretty nasty knee injury. Being out of work for so long cost her a big project and nearly got her fired. She’d had to quit the season before it really started and take out all her vacation days while she tried to get better.

But she did get better. Mainly because it was the only thing she focused on.

She got better, went back to work, aced every new project thrown her way, but then she faced an ultimatum. Go back to the WIP or give it up for good?

Then she met the woman who’d later go on to become the other half of Powerstones. A soft-spoken teacher who’d joined the WIP looking for a stress outlet. Their gym times overlapped a lot and Jurina ended up teaching her a few moves. When Jurina brought up quitting pro wrestling, her new friend had proposed they do a practice match together first. The only match bookings available were for tag team fights, so they joined up and fought as a duo. They’d lost, but that didn’t matter. The match was fun and less intense than solo bouts. Jurina was hooked. They’d been fighting and training together as Powerstones ever since.

Until this week, that is.

Miona closed the WIP website that she’d been reading from on her phone.

After the disastrous Ring Solutions meeting that afternoon, she’d been eager to find out as much as she could about the now-dissolved Powerstones. A bit of web-surfing brought up their bio (sans pics) on the WIP ELITE championship preview page. They were listed as a team to keep your eye on for the championship, known for their excellent teamwork and sportsmanship. Their ELITE index (some kind of seeding maybe?) ranked them pretty solidly in the top half of the competition. They were good.

They were also now disbanded, apparently.

The meeting went like this: Jurina did a recap of the current state of the Ring Solutions proposal, Bird Takayanagi gave a spiel on her expectations for the bracket and competition, Taguchi gave a veteran’s take on their overall chances, Minarun laid out the company policy on what kind of fighting was and wasn’t allowed. And then _she_ dropped the bomb.

Jurina’s Powerstones partner was leaving the WIP.

Everyone besides the CEO looked shocked. Apparently she’d been thinking about it for a while, missing practices more often than not. She’d gotten a job offer abroad that was impossible to pass up and had been trying to figure out the right time to tell Jurina. She apologized for the trouble she was causing, but this was a career move she had to take.

Jurina’s response went like this: “Thank you for finally telling me.”

And then she’d walked right out of the room.

Taguchi had quickly wrapped up the meeting after that, dismissing them all a few minutes later. The only news Miona got for the rest of the day was a meeting notification titled ‘Ring Solutions Next Steps’ tentatively scheduled for next Monday. But there was no way she was letting this problem fester till then. She needed to talk to Jurina asap.

She’d tried texting, but that had led nowhere. A ‘ _hey wanna talk?_ ’ was met with a ‘ _not right now, sorry_ ’ and quickly followed up with a ‘ _going to skip workouts tomorrow btw. rest day_ ’.

Rest day? Miona doubted Jurina even knew what that meant.

She tried to imagine what the CEO’s go-to comfort activity was. Jurina didn’t seem like a drinker, but maybe she liked eating junk food? Miona thought back to her donut tower surprise last weekend—oh yeah, she could definitely imagine mopey Jurina stuffing her face with the worst food known to man. But Miona didn’t know where she lived, so it’s not like she could just show up on her doorstep with a bag of donuts.

Maybe she liked listening to sad music?

Miona absentmindedly scrolled through her ‘teeeeaaaaaarrssssss’ playlist on her phone, but soon realized she didn’t know Jurina’s music taste, either. She knew how many donuts she could stuff her face with in 30 minutes, but not what music she liked? Amazing.

“Fine,” Miona sighed. “We’re just going to have to wing it.”

She was midway through a google search of ‘funny wrestling memes’ when Nicole jumped up onto her lap. “Mommy’s busy…” Miona uttered absentmindedly to her dog. But Nicole would not be deterred. She plopped herself down and closed her eyes, getting ready for a nap. “Are you tired?”

Miona stroked her dog’s fur and was suddenly reminded of Jurina, full and exhausted, lying on this very same couch. She smiled and found herself taking a picture of a drowsy Nicole on her lap. She sent the pic to Jurina almost immediately, putting in the caption ‘ _passed out on the couch, reminds me of someone :)_ ’.

Miona thought that would be it. She didn’t expect an answering dog pic to come in barely a minute later. Jurina was lying down and staring at the camera, a small brown pup trapped in her clutches. It took an embarrassing amount of time for Miona to look away from the pic and actually read the caption. It simply said ‘ _lips_ ’.

What?

What did that even mean?

And why did this look like one of those ‘I’m pretty but I’m not really trying’ Instagram posts that models did when they were trying to look ‘natural’? Miona sent a follow-up question to try and figure out her text, which lead to the following exchange:

‘ _lips?_ ’

‘ _this is lips_ ’

‘ _your lips?_ ’

‘ _yes. my lips_ ’

Miona wanted to scream. Why was this so hard? Why wasn’t Jurina making any sense? What did ‘lips’ mean?!

And then the lightbulb went off in her head and Miona remembered.

Her dog! Jurina named her dogs Lips! Finally she could understand what was going on! She took a close-up photo of Nicole’s sleepy face to commemorate her tiny victory. She sent it off with her most creative caption yet: ‘ _Nicole_ ’

And so started a back-and-forth of dog pics that lasted well into the night. It got to the point that Nicole eventually grew tired of Miona constantly bothering her, so she ran off, no doubt warning Putty to stay away as well. After a cursory search of her apartment proved that her dogs wanted nothing to do with her, Miona sent her first dog-less pic of the night. Her pout was fierce, her pajamas were very drab-chic and the look in her eyes screamed despair. Her caption said: ‘ _no dog :(_ ’

Jurina’s reply was instantaneous: ‘ _liar. I still see a puppy_ ’

Miona laughed, shaking her head. She moved into the bathroom to brush her teeth and placed her phone on the edge of the counter. She brainstormed a few possible replies while she brushed, thinking Jurina would probably wait for her to respond. Well, she thought wrong.

Her phone lit up seconds later with a pic that nearly had Miona choking on her toothpaste. Jurina had apparently ditched her dogs too and sent a fairly close-up selfie of—wait, was she on her bed? Miona snatched up her phone and carefully zoomed in on the photo to determine that yes, she was definitely lying on her bed. Wow.

Miona read the caption as an afterthought, really. It said: ‘ _thanks for cheering up puppy Ju_ ’.

Jurina had her eyes closed with a small smile on her face. She looked peaceful, which pulled a similar smile out of Miona as well. So her not-very-well-thought-out plan to cheer up the wrestler had worked after all. Nice.

‘ _any time!_ ’ Miona snapped a selfie with her toothbrush still in her mouth—because why not?—and sent it without a second thought.

‘ _are you free tomorrow night?_ ’ was Jurina’s answering text.

Miona didn’t see it till she was in bed and what a good thing that was, too. She was pretty sure her legs would’ve given out had she read that standing up.

What?

Her brain was short-circuiting, trying to comprehend those five words. Tomorrow was Saturday, which meant that Jurina was inquiring about her availability on a non-workday, which could mean another WIP visit, but after the disastrous meeting they’d had today would there even _be_ any more WIP visits in the future, why does this sound like a date, why does this sound like a date, why does this sound like a date? Miona tried unsuccessfully to compress her thoughts into a response.

What she did end up sending was: ‘ _tomorrow is saturday_ ’

‘ _correct lol tomorrow is saturday_ '

Miona could practically hear Jurina laughing at her. She huffed as she tapped out her next message, ‘ _I thought you said no workouts tomorrow_ ’.

‘ _no workouts, I promise. This is more like… an event. I don’t want to spoil it though. You’re going to love it_ ’

Miona raised a brow at the choice of words. An event? An event was safe, right? Miona let out a relieved sigh. It wasn’t a date, it was just an event that Jurina had decided to ask her to tag along to. Probably wrestling-related, too. Maybe that’s what her comfort activity was—watching wrestling.

Miona could do an event. But she also wanted Jurina to work a bit harder for it, too.

‘ _maybe if puppy Ju asked me…_ ’

What Miona was not expecting was the call that came in mere seconds after she sent her message. She let out a chuckle of disbelief. This girl, really…

She let it ring out for as long as she could, knowing Jurina was waiting impatiently on the other end. And when she answered, she was greeted by the sound of soft whining.

“That better be Lips making that noise,” Miona warned her.

The whining stopped and the sound of Jurina laughing filled her ears for a glorious few seconds. “Wait, you have to let me do it, okay? Are you ready?”

“Jurina—”

“Puppy Ju, remember?”

Miona’s face flushed a deep red and she looked up at the ceiling as if to ask the gods for help with this unbelievably embarrassing woman. “Puppy Ju…?”

“Yep!” Jurina barked out her response, falling back into character. “Please, Miona-hime~”

The exaggerated whines and barks that followed were beyond ridiculous, but so was everything else about Jurina. Really, nothing should’ve surprised Miona at that point.

“I brought this on myself, didn’t I?” She sighed.

“You’re going to love it. And…” Jurina cleared her throat, fully returning to her normal voice to utter her next words. “It’s about time I finally made a move, right? What do you say?”

Miona’s eyes widened. Oh wait.

Oh wait just a tiny little second.

That sounded like a date. Why did that sound like a—

“Go on a date with me?”


	11. You unbuckle it

**Chapter 11 – You unbuckle it**

 

“63F… 63F…” Jurina muttered as she scanned the seat numbers printed on the steps. “63… Oh, I think it’s this one.”

She turned around and gave Miona a brief smile. They’d found their seats.

They shuffled past knees and drinks and buckets of chicken and fries as they made their way towards the two empty seats in the middle of the row. There was a moment of confusion where Jurina tried to offer up both seats, but Miona gestured for the CEO to pick hers first and they just stood there waiting on the other. And then they just sat down.

Miona looked around at the stadium as she got settled in. There were thousands of wrestling fans here to see the matches, all decked out in some merch or the other. It was the unofficial start of the WIP season, with the biggest names in the league showing off their best moves before the more serious bracket play. Judging by how close they were to the ring, Jurina had managed to get them some pretty good seats.

Miona turned to tell her this, but stopped herself when she saw the CEO perk up expectantly. “What is it? Do you need something?”

“Ah, no… I’m fine.”

Instead, Miona sank down into the rock-hard stadium seats and folded her hands in her lap. She shouldn’t have come here.

“They have a couple of food booths inside, but the lines get super long in between matches.” Jurina leaned in closer as she said this. “We can try to get something during one of the earlier fights.”

“Sounds good.”

“Drinks are easier to get, but same deal.”

“Sure.”

“Oh, they also have some merch on sale if you get interested in any of the wrestlers. That’s how I got this shirt—” Jurina pointed to the black shirt she was wearing that had a graphic of a mask printed on it, “—I was so moved when I watched the fight that I just had to get something to commemorate it, you know. But they also have practical stuff like towels, too—you’ll probably need one of those, actually—”

“Jurina.”

“Hmm?” The CEO paused, already halfway out of her seat.

“I’m fine,” Miona said in the gentlest voice she could muster. She really, really shouldn’t have come here.

“Oh, okay. Just let me know if there’s anything.” Jurina nodded, settling back down. She was still all-smiles, though she looked a little nervous. Miona watched as she took out her phone and needlessly flicked through her notifications. There were no notifications. Miona had seen when she’d turned on Airplane Mode when they’d arrived at the stadium. It was obvious that Jurina was still a bit thrown off by their current dynamic.

They were friends.

Friends where one party had asked the other out to a wrestling event, but had been rejected, but they’d still agreed to go to the event together. So, friends.

“Jurina…” Miona started, not knowing what she wanted to say, but knowing she had to clear the air somehow.

“Hmm?” Jurina didn’t even look up, even though Miona knew she wasn’t looking at anything on her phone. She hated how awkward they were now.

“I can’t date you.” Miona saw the grimace on the CEO’s face and felt guilty all over again, but she kept going. “I like you, but I can’t date you. That’s all.”

“I know, I know, I’m just… I’m just being dumb, you know.” She tried to laugh it off, finally putting away her phone.

“It’s not dumb.”

“It is. You explained why and I get it.” Jurina nodded to herself. “And I respect that.”

“Thanks.”

“And it’s not like – it’s not like it would’ve been easy otherwise, either. I mean, Minarun would not have been happy. At all. Yeah… it was kind of stupid of me to ask you out, wasn’t it? Sorry about that.”

Miona sighed. Jurina had been like this since she’d picked her up this afternoon. Apologizing, over-explaining, and just generally putting herself down for daring to ask her out the night before. Miona wasn’t used to this side of the CEO and she didn’t know how to get her to stop. She’d thought going to the event with her would’ve given them a chance to reset their friendship so they could get past this, but no dice so far.

Honestly, she preferred mopey Jurina over whatever this was.

An announcer’s voice came on over the speakers, welcoming them to the event. The crowd went wild around them, but Jurina just clapped. Even though Miona knew she was probably more excited than anyone else, given the fact she was also a wrestler herself. She was just down. And Miona had had enough of it.

“Jurina,” she called out, leaning in to be heard over the announcer’s safety instructions blaring over the speakers. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

“Oh, do you want me to—”

“I’ll be fine.”

 

Miona entered the toilet stall and locked the door. She didn’t sit down, she just stood there and took a deep breath.

Honestly, she was kind of impressed how not-gross the bathroom was, especially given the sheer number of people that would be using it today. Which reminded her that she couldn’t stay in here too long. There was a line of women waiting for their turn right outside.

After a few moments to herself, she flushed the toilet—she had to at least pretend she was using it, right? That’s when a text came in on her phone.

She took it out to see Jurina had sent her a pic of a menu with the caption, ‘ _getting food! want anything?_ ’

“Yeah, I want us to go back to normal,” Miona muttered.

She turned to open the stall door and stopped when she saw the crude drawings littering the surface. Crude as in obviously not done by anyone with a shred of drawing talent, not crude as in lewd. Though there was a drawing in the lower left corner that was a bit… yeah, Miona didn’t want to know.

What did grab her attention was a list of _‘_ _J my favvorite wretslers_ _J’_

The list was long and obviously a collaborative effort. The first three were done by the same person, then the next two had a different writing style, then the next four and so on. The result was a list of at least twenty-five wrestling names spanning almost the entire length of the door. And about halfway down the list was a name she’d seen a lot in the last few days, ‘ _POWERSTONES!!!_ ’

Miona smiled and took a picture of the door with her phone.

 

It was relatively easy to find the line that Jurina had joined for food. One, it was comically long and nearly reached the entrance to the bathrooms. Two, there was a sign overhead between the food stall and the bathroom that read, **‘** **ß Recharge Station | Discharge Station** **à’**

She’d like to think she was smart enough to figure out which was which.

But that was just to find the line. Finding Jurina herself should’ve been a little bit harder. Turns out that wasn’t the case.

As Miona walked, she saw a group of fans holding small stuffed toys—teddy bears dressed in wrestling outfits?—all surrounding a certain wrestler. They were taking pictures, waiting turns to have their teddy bears autographed, doing general fan-things and it really shouldn’t have been so strange to see in a place like this. Except, the wrestler they were fangirling over was Jurina. CEO Jurina who hadn’t even fought her first official match yet. CEO Jurina who had recently gone viral over wrestling a man with a giant teddy bear… Oh.

Okay, now the teddy-bear autographs made more sense.

Miona edged closer to the crowd and she chuckled when she saw the deer-in-the-headlights look on Jurina’s face.  She was probably embarrassed having to deal with her ‘fans’ even while the food line she was in was still moving. Miona didn’t want to get in the middle of the surprise fanmeet, so she sent a text instead, ‘ _I know what merch I want now. think they have any teddy bears here?_ ’

Jurina checked her phone in between autographs and immediately looked up to try and spot Miona in the crowd. When they locked eyes, she mouthed a desperate ‘ _please help me_ ’ in her direction, not even trying to be discreet.

‘ _What do you want me to do?_ ’ Miona mouthed back.

Jurina was at a loss for words, she obviously had no idea how she was going to get out of there. Luckily, she got to the front of the line moments later and got her food. Unluckily, her newfound fandom had decided to keep following her even after they’d gotten their autographs. They walked along beside the CEO, making small talk and taking a never-ending stream of pictures. Jurina kept looking towards her for help, so Miona knew she had to step in.

She started walking away from them, going further down the hallway, but made sure that Jurina still had her in her sights. The CEO took the hint and followed after her.

They must’ve walked halfway around the stadium before Miona found a small unlit hallway leading to a locked door, marked STAFF ONLY. It was practically invisible to the average passerby unless they were looking for it. It was perfect.

Miona stepped into the hallway and waited, eyes peeking around the corner. As soon as she spied Jurina’s shiny gold shoes, she reached out and yanked the wrestler into the hallway with her. She quickly spun her around and pushed her against the wall, blocking her as much as she could with her own body.

Jurina looked understandably surprised, but she quickly picked up on Miona’s plan and kept quiet. She even huddled down to try and make herself smaller, cradling the deluxe chicken and fries combo meal she’d bought from the stall.

This was where Miona’s plan ended, however. She had no idea what to do from this point on. How would they even know if the fans were gone? How long would they have to stay here?

“Thanks, you’re a lifesaver,” Jurina murmured after a moment.

“I’d like to think you’d do the same for me,” Miona smiled back. They were whispering to stay safe, but it had already been a few minutes. It was starting to feel like the threat was finally gone.

“We’re going to miss the first match, though…”

“I’ll survive.”

Jurina looked up from her hunched over position and Miona felt that it was nice to be the taller one for once. “You don’t really like pro wrestling at all, do you?”

“I like you,” Miona countered. “And you like pro wrestling, so.”

“I’m sorry for making you come here.”

“You didn’t make me do anything—can you stop that already?” Miona had had enough of this almost an hour ago. Now, she was way beyond her threshold for this kind of Jurina.

“Stop what?”

“Stop apologizing, stop being awkward... Why are you so awkward about this?”

Jurina bowed her head and pursed her lips, not at all eager to start talking. So, Miona would have to wait, then. She was fine with that. Miona snuck her hand into the fast food box the CEO was cuddling and picked out a chicken strip. Without another word, she started eating it, right in front of Jurina’s shocked face.

“I thought you weren’t hungry…”

“I changed my mind,” Miona said, opening the box further to look for any sauces that might be inside. She didn’t find any, though. “Turns out I’m pretty hungry for the truth.” Miona bit defiantly into her chicken strip to stop herself from cringing over her own words. “And chicken. This is pretty good, too.”

“I know, it’s my favorite thing to eat when I come to matches.”

“Do you go to a lot of matches?”

Jurina looked away for a moment, but eventually answered. “Powerstones did. For research and… just to hang out sometimes.”

Miona nodded, finally starting to see what the problem might be. “Was the ticket today supposed to be for her too?”

“Hey now,” Jurina protested, straightening back up to her full height. Miona hoped the fans were long gone by now because they definitely weren’t trying to hide anymore. “I bought this ticket because I wanted to go with you, because I’d been having a great time hanging out with you and I wanted to keep doing that. You’re not a replacement.”

“Okay, okay, sorry.” But Miona wasn’t going to give up so easily, though. “But you’ve still been pretty weird… Even before you asked me out, since the meeting.”

Jurina sighed and nodded, finally giving in. “You’re right.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Nothing to say, I guess. Powerstones is over and the Ring Solutions proposal is dead. Two of the biggest things in my life are gone.” Jurina pulled out a short, stumpy chicken strip and despondently bit into it. “I’m sad.”

“I can see that.”

“I didn’t mean to ask you out at such a bad time—I know how it looks. I didn’t do it just because I was striking out on everything else.”

Miona opened her mouth to respond, but suddenly a rock song started playing over the speakers. The crowd was going wild, but Jurina merely smiled.

“Sounds cool, right? Our entrance song was even cooler, though.”

“So you’re just going to give up? After all that training?” Miona asked.

Jurina frowned. “I don’t have much of a choice. It’d be impossible to find a replacement partner to fight with—”

“Or you can just go solo.”

Jurina looked at her like she hadn’t even dared to think of that option. “I…”

“You were solo before Powerstones, right? You could try again.”

“Yeah, but I failed. I don’t know if you read that part too, but I didn’t make it. I nearly lost everything back then.” Jurina shook her head, “I’m not good enough to—"

“Not good enough or not brave enough?”

Miona watched as her words hit the CEO like a truck. She looked shaken, like she wanted to respond but wasn’t sure now how she really felt.

“I’m not scared,” Jurina finally said, but she didn’t sound too sure of herself. Miona knew she had to fix that.

“I know that. That’s how you took down that teddy bear guy, remember? And when you protected me from that dinosaur bird?”

Jurina chuckled, “It wasn’t that bad.”

“Or when you took on the leadership of a company that had no future and basically breathed new life into it?”

“That wasn’t just me—”

“But that was you who put yourself out there. You were brave enough to take those chances. Why not now?” Miona looked up into those eyes that she’d come to admire so much. Jurina was strong and determined and a force to be reckoned with. And finally, finally, the CEO was starting to remember that. The smile that slowly lit up Jurina’s face was magical. Miona smiled and took out the largest piece of chicken left in the box. It was time to wrap up her little pep talk, her job here was done. “You’re amazing, change my mind.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Then don’t.” Miona shrugged, turning to go back out to join the rest of the stadium. Jurina’s hand stopped her though. She slowly pulled her back into the dark recesses of their little hallway.

“What if…” Jurina started and Miona knew enough to be wary of the tone she was using.

“We should get back to our seats before we miss everything—”

“Okay, but what if…”

“Jurina…” Miona warned.

“You haven’t even heard what I’m going to say yet,” she protested.

“I know you.”

“Oh?”

“We can’t.”

“Can’t what?”

Miona fixed her with her best unimpressed glare in the dim hallway. “Remember what I said about ruining the moment? This is a good moment, let’s just… not ruin it. Please.”

Jurina released her arm, but the hopeful look on her face remained. “You wanted to know why I was so awkward around you, right? I really like you, Miona.”

Miona took a deep breath. “I know. I like you too, but—”

“That’s good because… I thought of a way we could show that to each other. Without actually breaking any rules. I was thinking about it all night, but I didn’t know how to bring it up. Or if you’d even want to do it,” Jurina chuckled self-consciously. “It’s kind of…”

Miona couldn’t help the spark of curiosity that flared up inside her. She knew she probably shouldn’t, but she couldn’t not ask, right? “What is it?”

 

They did eventually get back to their seats and catch most of the other matches. At least, Miona thought they did—she didn’t really pay them much attention. Neither did Jurina, actually.

The two of them practically ghosted through the rest of the event until it was over and it was time to go home. It took them forever to get back to the parking lot, and even longer to find where they’d parked the Range Rover.

Once inside, they just sat there, watching the other cars queue up to leave.

“It’s better if we just wait,” Jurina recommended and Miona fully agreed. The line of cars was long and only getting longer. “Thanks for coming, by the way.”

“Oh, are we starting already?”

“N-no, I was just saying—I wasn’t talking about—”

Miona laughed at the embarrassed blush on Jurina’s face. “I’ve never seen you like this before. It’s refreshing.”

“Really?”

“Mhmm,” Miona hummed, nodding her head. “At first it was kind of annoying because I didn’t know what was causing it, but know… you really like me, huh?”

“Yes, Miona-hime,” Jurina rolled her eyes. “I really, really like you. Really. Really. Really, really.”

“Okay, I think I get it.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to confess again? I feel like I’ve been confessing all day.”

“No, I’m good.” Miona shifted in her seat for a moment. She glanced over at the CEO who looked more relaxed than she’d been all day despite her words. The parking lot only had a few lights overhead and they’d parked in a relatively shaded section. The way the light hit them made it feel like they were out on their own, even though they were literally surrounded by cars. It was kind of perfect, actually. And Miona wanted to think she could read the current mood, so she decided it was her turn to take the plunge. “It was an interesting first date.”

Jurina’s brows furrowed, confused. “But you said we can’t—oh…” A look of realization washed over her face and Miona just smiled to confirm that yes, “oh, we’re doing it? Okay.”

“Not really what I expected, but I liked it,” Miona continued.

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“You didn’t tell me you were so famous, though.”

Jurina closed her eyes for a moment, smiling ruefully. “Well… you know I wrestle, right?”

“Right.”

“There’s a pretty big fanbase for it and I guess some of them like me and… yeah.”

“Wow, you’re so cool~” Miona chuckled at the exasperated look on Jurina’s face. She obviously wasn’t used to roleplaying on the fly like this. Miona decided to tone down her teasing and stick to the ‘main script’, as it were. The whole point they were doing this in the first place was…

“Oh, you like that kind of thing?” Jurina smugly asked, bouncing back into her groove.

“Maybe.” Miona could be coy.

“Do you like it enough to…” Jurina slowly leaned in, but Miona pushed her back almost immediately.

“Okay, not even when we’re roleplaying will I ever be that easy. What kind of line was that?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

Miona shook her head, but couldn’t help laughing. It could’ve been much worse, she guessed. At least they were both trying.

She turned fully in her seat to face the CEO, off-handedly noting that the parking lot was getting emptier around them.

“You don’t have to try so hard. First rule of RPGs is there are no rules. Don’t feel like you have to be someone you’re not.”

“Okay,” Jurina nodded. She probably had no idea her plan would’ve turned out like this when she’d suggested it earlier. What if… they just pretended? What if they weren’t Jurina Matsui, CEO and Miona Hori, intern, but just two regular people? Out on a date, not having to care about a championship or HR or anything else? It was tempting. So tempting, that Miona had agreed to try it out, at least once. And so, here they were.

Roleplaying a relationship, or at least the start of one.

“I was really happy when you finally asked me out,” Miona muttered. She was roleplaying, but her words bore a startling amount of honesty. “I’ve liked you for a while.”

Jurina smiled tenderly at her and Miona could see her relaxing into her role as… herself. “Since the day we met? Because that’s how long it’s been for me.”

“Really?”

“I didn’t know what it meant, but I knew I wanted more of it. I couldn’t let you slip away.”

“That’s cheesy, you know.”

“I know,” Jurina shrugged, not caring in the least. “It’s the truth. You said I should stop pretending, right?”

Miona found it impossible to look away from Jurina’s eyes. It was like they were locked in some sort of dance, some kind of contract that would break the second they looked away. So they had to keep going. It almost didn’t matter what they said, just that they kept whatever connection they had right now going for as long they could. Until…

“The cars are all gone,” Miona said, a bit out-of-the-blue, but not quite.

“The cars…”

“The ones we were waiting on. The reason we couldn’t leave. Remember?”

“That’s not why we couldn’t leave,” Jurina chided softly.

“So you lied.”

“Maybe we both did.” Jurina shifted almost imperceptibly closer, her hand moving to cover Miona’s. “But since we’re being truthful now… since we both know why we’re still here…”

“What? What should we do?” Miona raised a brow at her, as if challenging her. Which was foolish in and of itself, because of course Jurina would accept the challenge. Of course she would. Maybe that’s why she did it in the first place.

Jurina moved slowly, so as not to break whatever spell had been cast over the two of them.

She drew closer and closer and would’ve kept going if her seatbelt didn’t stop her. Miona could see the hint of annoyance that Jurina tried to hide, not wanting to ruin the mood.

“Your seatbelt,” Miona stated the obvious.

“My seatbelt.”

But even though they’d acknowledged the problem, no one moved to fix it. And this is where Miona knew she could help out. Jurina still wasn’t quite used to actual RPGs, so she didn’t fully appreciate the fact that the only real thing stopping them was their imagination.

“You unbuckle it,” Miona whispered. “You don’t want anything stopping you, so you take it off.”

“Okay,” Jurina responded, as if in a trance. “I unbuckle it.”

But she didn’t actually, although her hand did drift down to the buckle. Maybe she knew that they’d crossed a line where only words were allowed. They could keep going, but they’d be limited. But of course they kept going.

“You lean in closer.”

“I lean in closer.”

“And you do… that thing that we both want to do.” Miona could feel her heart beating like a drum inside her chest. Like it knew they were building up to something. She wondered what Jurina’s heart sounded like.

“That thing…” Jurina smiled, testing out the words. Preparing for the next step? Giving her a chance to back out? Why? She knew she wouldn’t.

And then, as if on cue, the lights overhead went out and the parking lot and the car were filled with darkness. It was perfect.

“I kiss you.”

It took a moment for Miona to realize that she’d closed her eyes, too. She could only hear the sound of their breathing now. It really was perfect.

“I kiss you back.”

 


	12. Bang

**Chapter 12 – Bang**

 

“Do you want my help?” Miona finally asked.

“No, I’ve… I’ve got this…” Jurina huffed out as she tried to get their carry-on bags to fit in the overhead compartment.

Miona looked behind them and noted that there were still a few people waiting to get to their seats, so she shifted around until she was sitting in the seat directly underneath Jurina’s struggling figure. Out of the aisle, but now with a direct view of the CEO’s straining suit. Why, oh why, did Jurina insist on wearing clothes that barely fit? Especially on a day like today?

“Your middle button is in danger,” Miona reported quietly.

“My… my what?” Jurina looked down, a confused furrow to her brow, arms still held high to keep their bags from falling.

“This button,” Miona pointed at the straining object in question, “is about to blow.”

“Crap…”

“Now, I’m not sure if you want a repeat of what happened in your office—”

“Fix it for me, please,” Jurina begged, looking imploringly at her.

“So this is why you wanted me to come with you,” she teased.

“Miona. I am begging you. Please.”

Luckily for the CEO, Miona knew when to stop teasing. It was obvious Jurina was pretty stressed out, so she decided she might as well save her from being charged for indecent exposure on an airplane.

“Hold your breath.” Miona moved in close and carefully unbuttoned the offending button. “All clear.” She patted Jurina’s stomach to signal she was done. She didn’t have to, but there was no one else from the company on the flight with them, so why not?

“And I think I’m done, too.” Jurina breathed out as she finally stepped back, appraising her packing job. She nodded once, then sat down in the empty seat beside Miona. “Thank you for your service.”

“Any time. You should really stop wearing such tight suits, though.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose. This was the only clean one I had left,” Jurina defended herself, unbuttoning the rest of her jacket to complete the look. Then she turned to face Miona, arms out wide. “How is it?”

“Why do you even _own_ an orange button-up?”

Jurina straightened out her jacket, pouting subconsciously. “… It’s my favorite color.”

Miona laughed, then stopped when she looked down at her own outfit too. It was the nicest dress she could find as her own suits were also in the laundry. She’d thought she looked fine, but then again, she’d also never had to suddenly fly across the country to meet with the Director of a large wrestling corporation. What even was the dress code for something like that?

“What about me?” Miona asked Jurina, a bit self-conscious now.

“The prettiest girl in the room,” the CEO answered easily, barely sparing her outfit a glance.

Miona narrowed her eyes at her. “We’re on a plane.”

“Fine. Then, you’re the prettiest girl in the sky.” Jurina grinned in that smug way she did that Miona should hate, but she didn’t. “Ah, you know what? When we get to the hotel, you should check out the beach.”

“Why…”

“So then you can be the prettiest girl in the seven seas, too.”

Okay, Miona took that back, now she had absolutely no problem hating the smug smirk on the CEO’s face. She considered physically wiping it off, but then decided to just use her trump card instead.

“I’m sure HR would love to hear that.” Miona ignored the unimpressed glare she got in return, choosing instead to reiterate what she’d told Jurina after their wrestling ‘date’ on Saturday. “CEO Jurina can’t say stuff like that, remember?”

“Right,” the wrestler murmured, rolling her eyes and not trying to hide it.

“Hey, if we’re going to do this, we have to have rules. If we can’t handle that, then…”

“No, you’re right. You’re right.” Jurina sighed, giving in. “I’m sorry.”

Their conversation fell off after that, as the flight attendants came around to do their final checks. Miona watched as Jurina buckled her seatbelt and then did the same with her own. This was the first time she was flying first class, so she wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Besides their priority boarding however, everything else seemed to be pretty much the same so far.

Given the sudden and frantic way their plans for this trip had come together, Miona had been expecting non-stop excitement. Not so.

The day after their wrestling ‘date’—yesterday—Jurina had called her up and told her that she was right. She’d been too scared of her past failures as a solo wrestler to want to put herself out there again, but that was over now. It was time for her to step up and put it all on the line—for the company and for her own sake, too.

It was time for the return of Hollywood Jurina.

But, seeing as the WIP season was literally days away from starting, they had to do more than just speak it into existence. There was paperwork. A lot of paperwork. So much paperwork and bureaucracy that it’d be nigh impossible to get it all squared away with before the matches started.

So Jurina had made a call—to Oba Mina, head of HR. Who had made a call to Bird Takayanagi of Ring Solutions. Who had put aside her hatred of WIP management to get them in touch with the WIP Area Coordinator for her division. Who had rejected Jurina’s proposal to change divisions so close to the season—was she crazy? Their schedules were already set, try again next year.

So Jurina had done what any CEO in her position would’ve done. She’d asked to speak to the guy’s manager. Who had also said no to her. Who’d then reluctantly agreed to put her in touch with the Season Coordinator who “normally doesn’t work on Sundays, so I wouldn’t expect too much from him.”

Somewhere in the middle of all this phone jockeying, the CEO had driven herself over to Miona’s place. And then spent almost an hour arguing on the phone in the front seat of her car. Miona had walked outside, opened the car door, and then practically dragged Jurina into her apartment.

And then the CEO had spent the next few hours pacing around uselessly as she talked on the phone, pausing every now and then to pet Nicole or slum it out on the couch next to Miona. There’d been a Harry Potter movie marathon airing on one of the stations, so she’d put it on for some background noise. Eventually Miona had gotten so invested in the angst-ridden Triwizard Tournament, that she’d been surprised when Jurina had laid down with her head in her lap.

“Are you done being the big bad boss yet?” Miona had asked.

“Almost,” the CEO murmured. “Pat my head, please?”

Miona smiled, but did as she was asked, turning back to watch Harry and his friends learn how to waltz for the upcoming ball.

Jurina did eventually get far enough up the WIP corporate chain of command to speak to the lady in charge of greenlighting wrestlers to join the league proper. Coincidentally, WIP lady was familiar with Powerstones. Even more coincidentally, WIP lady had also seen Jurina’s viral teddy bear video. And that’s where their luck changed.

WIP lady was so ecstatic to be talking to a “modern wrestling phenomenon, the literal poster child for what the WIP is trying to do,” that she had immediately offered to put her in touch with the big, bad, final boss. The Director of the WIP.

Jurina had fist-pumped like mad when she’d heard that—finally, a breakthrough! But, of course, there was a catch. Emailing would take forever. Calling him would be better, but still not guaranteed to get everything resolved in time. But if they could meet face-to-face…

“I can do that. Absolutely. Just give me the time and place and I can make it happen,” Jurina had immediately agreed.

The time: Monday morning, 11:30 am.

The place: A four-hour plane ride away.

The deal: As good as done, seeing as Jurina had mid-call borrowed Miona’s phone to start drafting an email of the details to send to Minarun and their CFO.

By the time the call was done, they had two tickets for a plane leaving in less than 12 hours.

“Wait… two tickets?” Miona had asked, still trying to wrap her head around all that had happened.

“Yeah. You’re coming with me, of course.”

Cut to: Present time, the two of them currently seated on the plane that was about to take off. Miona was a bit unmoored by how… normal it all felt.

Really, how had she managed to get used to Jurina’s crazy world so quickly? It’d only been… what was it? A month? Yeah, call it a month since she’d started her internship.

Honestly, what was her life even like before all of this? Was this how things were going to be from now on?

Or would it all go back to normal after her internship was over?

Right, she’d been meaning to quit even before that too… Was that still what she wanted to do…?

Huh.

Miona hadn’t been expecting an existential crisis so early in the morning, but here she was. Damn it.

“… to sit back, buckle up and enjoy your flight. From our TrueOrange family to yours, thank you for flying SKAir.” The flight attendants smiled as they wrapped up their safety presentation, walking back down through the cabin for their final checks.

“Jurina?” Miona said as she turned to face the woman sitting next to her.

“Hmm?”

“The last time I was on a plane, it was for my dad’s hearing.” Maybe that’s why she’d been so hyper-aware and expectant today. Maybe she was waiting for the other shoe to drop. But maybe there weren’t any—maybe her life could be crazy good too, not just crazy bad.

“Do you want to hold my hand?” Jurina asked, already holding out her own in offering.

“Maybe.”

The plane slowly started its long journey taxiing down the runway and Miona’s hand eventually found its way into Jurina’s.

Did this break their rules?

Did she even care if it did?

 

They’d booked two rooms at the hotel.

Two separate rooms on separate floors—in separate wings, even. You had to go down the elevator back to the lobby, then up the other elevator in the other wing to get from one to the other. It would take you a good five minutes plus, depending on the wait for the elevators.

The point is, they had no real reason to both be in the same elevator, going up to the same floor and heading to the same room.

The excuse that Jurina threw out was, “We should go over our plan for the meeting together.”

And Miona knew that didn’t make much sense because they had absolutely no idea what to expect in their meeting in an hour. There was no plan.

But she still followed Jurina down the third floor hallway towards room 308.

The CEO paused in front of the door and smiled, pointing out the number. “It’s fate.”

“Fate?” Miona asked.

“My birthday.”

“Oh. Happy Birthday.”

Jurina scoffed, opening the door with her keycard. “You’re a few months late.”

Miona wheeled her carry-on luggage inside and set her bags down on the nearest bed—wait, why did the room have two beds? Was it the same in her own room too? “You have two beds.”

“They were out of singles.” Jurina slipped off her messenger bag and, after a few moments, decided to take off her jacket as well. Miona was not complaining. Okay, maybe she was a little bit—Jurina’s shirt was almost offensively orange. Tight yes, but basically neon.

Miona walked over, pretending she wasn’t at all bothered by the view, and picked up the jacket that had been thrown onto the other bed. She noticed the label inside was well-worn and washed out.

“Do you have anything else to wear? How long have you had this?”

“Since my first job. As you can imagine, I was a bit… smaller then,” Jurina huffed out as she dropped her suitcase onto the bed. She quickly unzipped it, but then stopped short of opening it.

Miona noticed her hesitation. “You _did_ pack something else, right?”

“I did… Promise you won’t laugh?”

Now Miona was very concerned. “It’s orange, isn’t it?”

“No, just—okay, just give me a few minutes to put it on. Close your eyes—”

“Just change in the bathroom—”

“I will, I will, but you have to close your eyes first,” Jurina pleaded. When Miona just narrowed her eyes suspiciously, she finally resorted to pouting. “Please, Miona-hime~”

“Fine.”

Miona counted teddy bears in her head as she sat waiting on the bed she’d ‘claimed’. She briefly wondered what Sugawara was thinking about her absence in the office today. She made a note to text her later to explain what was going on. Not before asking about her theories first, though. Knowing her friend, Miona was sure that she was probably convinced that she’d run off and eloped with Jurina. Or quit her job and decided to live off the CEO’s riches. Or both.

“Okay, I’m done.” A voice filled with nerves came from the direction of the bathroom. Jurina cleared her throat and the next time she spoke, she sounded closer. Like she was right in front of Miona. “You can open your eyes now.”

“I don’t know what to expect,” Miona said, eyes still firmly shut.

“Well… It’s not orange.”

“Somehow that doesn’t make me feel any better,” she laughed. Then she shook her head, readying herself for what she was about to see. “Okay. I’m doing it.”

Miona opened her eyes—

And her mouth fell open.

“Oh… My… God…”

Jurina was standing in front of her—right in front of her, barely two feet away—wearing the most skin-tight, unbelievably form-fitting, retro silver leotard she’d ever seen. It looked like it was supposed to be a wrestling outfit? Whatever it was supposed to be, whatever it’s purpose was, Miona could only see the rectangular cut-out at the center of the outfit that showed off Jurina’s midriff. There were gloves and boots and there was a whole look too, but Miona’s brain could only process things at a snail’s pace right now. This… was a lot more skin than she had ever seen in their workouts.

To top it all off, there was that smirk.

If Miona hadn’t heard Jurina’s shaky voice before, she would’ve had no idea that the CEO was nervous. She certainly didn’t look it. At all.

She was wearing the kind of smirk that could only be worn by someone who would choose to wrestle in a silver leotard.

And then she moved.

Slowly—because Jurina had to know that Miona couldn’t take too much stimulus right now—she brought her hand up. All the way up till her index finger was pointing at Miona’s forehead. She had her right in her sights. Bulls-eye.

“Bang.”

Jurina ‘fired’ her finger gun, and Miona’s heart took a direct hit. Her body fell back of its own volition and she bounced lightly on the bed as she came to a rest.

“So… what do you think?”

“Explain,” Miona croaked out, staring up at the ceiling like she’d just had a religious experience.

Jurina laughed and moved to sit down beside her on the bed. Miona refused to look at her.

“This is Hollywood Jurina.”

“That’s what you wrestle in?”

“I used to. I didn’t have a specific outfit when I fought as Powerstones, but I found this while I was packing and—”

“You _found_ this?”

“Okay, I was looking for it,” Jurina admitted. “I figured if I’m doing this, I might as well go all the way, you know. All or nothing.”

It made sense to Miona’s ears. Or maybe it didn’t, she didn’t care too much to bother fact-checking Jurina’s logic. But she did have a sneaking suspicion that she just had to bring up. “You’re planning on wearing that to the meeting, aren’t you?”

“You never know what could happen,” the CEO shrugged.

“What _could_ happen?” Miona pushed herself to sit upright, making sure to keep her gaze above Jurina’s shoulders. “It sounds like you’re expecting some kind of fight to break out while we’re in there.”

It sounded ridiculous to Miona, but apparently Jurina didn’t feel the same. She had a somber look on her face as she said, “Maybe it’s nothing, but the last time I underestimated the WIP, I nearly lost my leg. I’m not letting my guard down, especially not while you’re here with me too.”

Miona found herself lost in Jurina’s eyes for a moment, just letting the sincerity of her words wash over her. After a while, she murmured, “That was kind of sweet.”

“I try,” Jurina shrugged, playing it off.

Miona finally pulled her eyes away, glancing down at her phone to check the time. “The driver should be here soon.”

“How much time do we have left?” Jurina asked, shifting even closer. As if she was trying to see her phone too, but Miona knew that wasn’t the case.

“About twenty minutes… why?”

“Can I kiss you?”

Miona froze once she heard the request. She dared to look back at Jurina, whose smug smirk was all gone. Only a simple smile left behind. A smile and a request.

How could she refuse?

She didn’t want to refuse.

“You as in…” Miona floated the thought out there, waiting for Jurina to pick up on where she was going with this. Where they both needed to go, what they both needed to do, in order for that request to be fulfilled.

“… As in Hollywood Jurina, the best wrestler in the world… WIP champion.” Jurina smiled as she laid out her fantasy.

“And me as in…”

“Miona. Just Miona,” Jurina murmured, leaning in even closer. Like she knew it was all a foregone conclusion that it was going to happen. “A fan. My biggest fan.”

Miona licked her lips. Why was she feeling so nervous?

Why did this time feel so different.

“Can I kiss you, Miona?”

She nodded, unable to get a word out otherwise.

“Okay,” Jurina smiled. Miona saw the smile and then looked up into the eyes that were staring back into her own. They looked happy. Or were those her own eyes that she saw—was it her own happiness that was causing all this? Who knew? Who cared? “I kiss y—”

Miona leaned in.

 


	13. I'm ready

**Chapter 13 – I’m ready**

 

A kiss is a kiss is a kiss is a kiss.

This wasn’t Miona’s first kiss. This wasn’t her second one, either. College had been… quite the experience.

But that wasn’t the point. The point was… what exactly was the point? Miona’s brain kept stalling the more she tried to think about it.

Right. Kisses.

She wasn’t supposed to really kiss Jurina though, right? That was kind of the whole point of their RPG dating. A relationship that didn’t cross any real-world lines because it wasn’t really real. Right?

“Do you want me to stop?” Jurina murmured, breaking for air.

Miona opened her eyes and looked up at the wrestler braced over her on the bed. “Not really.”

“This doesn’t count, right? This is still… it’s not us, right?”

“Right,” Miona breathed out.

“I mean, I’m Hollywood Jurina right now, not… this still works, right?”

“Right,” Miona lied. She knew what the CEO was trying to say. She wanted this to not count, so they wouldn’t have to worry about HR or family legacies or anything. Miona wanted that too. She also wanted to keep on kissing Jurina. So… “It’s fine, we’re fine.”

“Good,” Jurina smiled in relief, leaning back in.

They could worry about it later. Right now, all Miona wanted to think about… was how amazing this kiss was. There was no way this wasn’t real.

Jurina’s lips were so soft and so… god, they were so good. At first, they were hesitant, just slightly pressing, just barely nudging—worried that Miona would back out? Like hell she would. Then, as the seconds passed and it grew obvious that this was exactly what they both wanted, the kiss changed. It evolved.

Now, they were lying down on the bed.

Now, it felt like they were permanently fused together, trying to get even closer.

Now, it felt like Jurina was pressing down into her so hard that they were seconds away from breaking the bed. Still Miona had a hand on the back of her head, buried in her hair, keeping her close. Still her other hand was clutching desperately at Jurina’s stupidly tight silver leotard, making sure there wasn’t an inch of space left between their bodies.

And Jurina’s tongue… oh wow…

The rest of their bodies might have been locked tight, practically immobile under their combined pressure, but their mouths… It wasn’t a battle, so much as it was a discovery. Jurina’s tongue invaded her mouth like it belonged there—and maybe it did. And then when Miona would start to feel faint—from the headiness of the kiss or the fact that she was severely lacking oxygen, she didn’t know which—Jurina would back off, giving her a brief respite, before surging back in and absolutely destroying any reservations she might’ve still had.

It was messy. It was intoxicating.

It was exactly the kind of thing they shouldn’t be doing right before an important meeting.

But—

“Your suit—I hate it,” Miona gasped out when she had the chance.

“What’s… wrong… with…” Jurina only broke away long enough to get a word out a time, not caring in the slightest how inefficient that was. “…my… suit?”

“You’re wearing it,” Miona huffed out. She tried to continue their kiss, but Jurina lifted herself just out of reach, laughing at her response. Miona felt her lips sink into the deepest pout she’d unleashed in a while. She did not see the humor in her words that the CEO obviously did. She tried to tug her back down, but Jurina managed to keep her distance. Why was she so darn strong? “Stop laughing.”

“I can’t,” Jurina smiled, gazing down at her with the softest expression she’d ever seen. “You’re too cute.”

“You’re supposed to kiss cute things, not laugh at them.” Miona knew she sounded like a brat, but she didn’t care. She’d do and say whatever she wanted as long as it led to them kissing again. Why did they stop?

“I can do both.” Jurina slowly leaned back in and lightly pecked her lips. “I want to do…” Another kiss, another moment that Miona wanted to stay in forever. “… so many things with you…”

“Like what?”

“Like…” Jurina mused, looking lost in thought for a moment. And then she smiled, gracefully slipping off to the side so she was no longer resting most of her weight on Miona. The mood had shifted, slowly releasing them from the sudden haze of hormones they’d been trapped in. Every second they weren’t kissing, Miona could feel her thoughts getting clearer and sounding more sensible. She wasn’t sure if she liked it. “After your internship… do you want to stay with the company?”

Miona held Jurina’s gaze even as her mind started racing a mile a minute.

Weren’t they just in the throes of passion? How on earth did they go from nearly tearing each other’s clothes off to casually discussing their careers?

Miona gulped, remembering her mini-freak out on the plane earlier. She’d come into the company with a one-track mind. But now… there was no plan anymore. Or there was, but somewhere along the line, she’d chosen to ignore it. She was flying by the seat of her pants, even as she tried to make it seem like she was still in control. And now it was starting to show—or maybe Jurina was just that perceptive. “What if I don’t want to?”

“That’s fine. This is your first company, right? You shouldn’t be tied down.” Jurina nodded as she finished dispensing her words of wisdom. Then she leaned back in to plant another kiss on Miona’s lips, but she was stopped by a pair of hands on her chest. Jurina smiled like she knew Miona was going to stop her, but she’d wanted to try anyway. “I ask because the things that I want… are very selfish. And I don’t want to tell you before you make up your mind about what you’re going to do.”

“And if I choose to stay?”

Jurina shrugged, “That’s fine, too.”

“But it would make this—us, pretty difficult, right?”

The CEO pursed her lips and moved her head slowly from side to side, trying to find the right words to say. “Nothing’s easy that’s worth fighting for.”

Miona looked away and chose instead to watch her own fingers play with the front of Jurina’s suit. Not suggestively, just idly. She tugged at a particular seam and watched as the leotard stretched to accommodate her. Tight, but not unyielding.

Miona started, “You do know—”

But then, both of their phones buzzed to indicate a message had come in. Jurina stretched carefully over Miona to grab her phone. She quickly read the message, then turned the screen to face the intern. ‘ _Hi, this is your driver, Ed. I’m in front of the hotel now_ ’

It was time to go.

“Finish your sentence,” Jurina said, not moving an inch from where she was leaning over Miona.

“I’ve already forgotten about it.”

“Come on,” the CEO rolled her eyes. She knew she was lying.

Miona playfully rolled her eyes in return. She pushed at Jurina’s immovable frame for a moment—long enough for the wrestler to have another chance to show off her strength. She always got so smug when she did and Miona wanted to head into this meeting on a high note. “You do know… that this RPG thing isn’t really working out, right?”

Jurina opened her eyes mockingly for a moment. Of course she knew. “Really?”

“We’re basically dating. We even kissed.”

“You kissed me—”

“And it’s practically a disaster waiting to happen if anyone ever finds out. No one can find out. Ever.” Even as Miona spoke, she felt almost immune to the words that she’d said. Like it was someone else’s problem now that they had crossed the line. Now that they had kissed. Or maybe a problem for a future Miona to deal with? When had she gotten so cavalier about this? Day-1-intern Miona would have never behaved this way. Had she gone mad?

Jurina’s face morphed into a more serious expression as she listened to Miona’s worries. “I know.” Then her lips quirked up into her trademark smirk. “But I really like you.”

Miona wondered if this was all Jurina’s fault.

Maybe it was. Or maybe the CEO was just the push she’d wanted to get out of her self-imposed shell. Now that she was out—in every sense of the word—there was no going back in. She didn’t want to go back in.

“Well, that’s good. Because I like you too.”

Miona leaned up to finish off their little tête-à-tête with a kiss, but Jurina covered her mouth with her hand to stop her. Off Miona’s quizzical look, the wrestler merely asked, “Me, as in…?”

And Miona was all too ready to give in. No games this time.

“You, as in you. And me, as in me.”

“Mhm… I like that.”

The kiss they shared afterwards was every part sweet as it was irresponsible, given that their driver was waiting downstairs and Jurina still had to change her clothes. But that was for another Miona and Jurina to worry about.

The two on the bed were happy enough never separating ever again.

 

Thankfully, they did get appropriately dressed and down to the car in good time.

Jurina had ditched the jacket, choosing instead to go full neon. Her orange shirt turned the head of almost everyone they passed on their way down to the lobby. But that was the point, apparently.

“Hollywood Jurina will definitely be able to draw crowds. That’s one of the things we have to emphasize,” the CEO pointed out from the list of meeting tips that Minarun had emailed them. Sure they didn’t have a plan, but they had a destination that they wanted to get to. They just had to work to get there.

As they got seated in the very, very nice car that was waiting for them—it was a Rolls Royce and Miona knew enough about power dynamics to know that sending this car was a message in and of itself—the other shoe finally dropped.

The driver slowly turned to them and handed them two blindfolds.

“What’s this?” Miona asked, because that’s the only reasonable response she could think of in that kind of situation.

“It’s okay,” Jurina answered when a few moments passed into the driver’s silence. She took the blindfolds and put on her own first. Then she handed the other to Miona, smiling reassuringly even though Miona knew for sure that she had no idea what was going on either. “You’re not under contract, so the WIP can’t do anything to you.”

That did absolutely nothing to ease Miona’s worries. Sure, she wasn’t in the WIP, but what about—

“What about you?” She asked Jurina, even as she accepted the blindfold from the CEO’s slightly trembling hands.

Jurina took a deep breath, preparing herself. But for what, neither of them had any idea. “Whatever happens, I’ll be fine. I’m ready.”

Well, Miona wasn’t.

But, when it seemed pretty obvious that the driver wouldn’t stop staring at her until she complied, she donned the blindfold as well. She would be leaving a strongly-worded one-star review for his services.

Their windows were heavily tinted, so of course no one saw what was happening inside the car, even though they were still parked in front of the hotel. And then the car started moving.

Almost immediately, Miona and Jurina’s hands found each other in the middle seat. Clasped tightly, they sat in silence for what seemed like forever. And then…

Miona’s head snapped up as she realized she was nodding off.

She tightened her hold on Jurina’s hand and received three squeezes in response. She wasn’t alone. Whatever was happening to her was happening to the CEO as well. She wanted to take off the blindfold, but found she had no strength to do so.

All she could manage was to keep squeezing Jurina’s hand. Reminding her that they would get through this. Whatever this was.

“Don’t worry… Miona-hime…” Jurina’s voice came out slowly, as if she had to fight to make sure every word was heard. “Nothing’s easy… that’s… that’s…”

Miona mustered up the last of her strength to give Jurina’s hand one last tight squeeze.

“Our… fight…” Miona whispered, not sure if anyone but herself could hear.

And then her world went dark.


	14. Let the Dream Showdown begin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we back

**Chapter 14 – Let the Dream Showdown begin**

 

Miona woke up in a conference room.

The first thing she saw was not, as she’d hoped, the reassuring smiling face of her pro wrestling CEO. In fact, what she _did_ see had her shutting her eyes so fast and so tightly, she saw stars.

“Aw, come on, don’t be like that,” a smarmy voice called out in her direction. “A reaction like that, and people will start to think that you hate me.”

“What are you doing here?” Miona croaked out. She realized as she said this that her throat was pretty dry—almost like she’d been asleep/knocked out for a while. She tried to think back to the last thing she could remember. Putting on a blindfold in the backseat of a Rolls Royce, sitting beside Jurina. Wait a second— “Where’s Jurina? What did you do with her?”

“So many questions right off the bat,” the voice chuckled. Then Miona heard the sound of a chair squeaking. Someone getting up? And then the voice came closer and Miona wanted to hurl. “Not even a greeting. A simple hello.” The voice tutted mockingly. “I thought your father would’ve taught you better than that—”

“Don’t talk about my father!” Miona yelled, eyes flying open in a blaze of anger. She glared up at the man standing right in front of her. He was dressed in a suit probably as expensive as the Rolls Royce he’d sent for them, with his hair slicked back in the most stereotypical bad-guy hairdo Miona had ever seen. She’d always hated how he looked when she was growing up and everything he’d done in the last few years had only helped cement her immense dislike towards him.

“Actually, you’re right. No need to bring family matters into a business meeting.” He spread his hands out wide, showing off the large room they were in.

They weren’t alone, too. Miona could count at least five suits in the room with them. A few were seated at the table, laptops out, like this was an actual meeting. The rest were standing off in the shadows, trying to look as inconspicuous as someone wearing sunglasses indoors possible could.

“We’ll talk about my dear brother—your father—later. Right after we deal with the matter at hand.” He leaned back against the large table, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He looked at her with a fake-concerned expression on his face. “Why didn’t you tell dear old Uncle M that you were visiting? Or that you’d taken up Morgy’s little business? I had to hear from my private channels that you were on the way—I would’ve put you on the M-plane! Every Christmas you’d ask if you could fly on it, remember?”

Miona gritted her teeth. “I thought you said no talk about family.”

“Well, I lied,” he shrugged.

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” she groused. Uncle M—god, she hated calling him that, but she didn’t have a lot of other choices since he’d legally changed his name to Money. That’s right. His name was Money Hori. She should have known he was bad news when he’d come home that one holiday in sixth grade showing off his new name. Her dad had said it was just Uncle M being his wacky, unpredictable self.

Oh Uncle M, changing his name, laundering money, throwing her dad under the bus in court…

And now apparently, the Director of the WIP.

So unpredictable.

“Now, little M, don’t be like that—”

“You’re not allowed to call me that anymore.” She was having none of his shit.

That may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back though. Uncle M’s expression remained the same even as he straightened up and walked back to his oversized chair at the head of the table.

He gripped the top of the headrest and then, in one fell swoop, _threw_ the chair at the closest suit.

Thankfully, the suit managed to dodge it in time. But the sound of the chair crashing into the wall startled the entire room. Miona tried not to react, but she couldn’t help the way her heartbeat spiked in fear.

Ah, Uncle M… a bit too unpredictable.

“Now, _little M_ ,” he practically snarled her childhood nickname at her. “I brought you here because I felt the way we left things off was unbecoming of our once-tightknit family. The trial brought out the worst in the Horis and I want to help us move past that dark stain in our history.”

Miona tried her best not to shout back at him again, she really did. She wasn’t normally so short-tempered, but boy, oh boy, did Uncle M bring out the fire in her. He was a traitor. Plain and simple.

It wasn’t a stretch to say that every single bad thing in her life so far was because of him.

Losing her dad. Losing her friends. Losing her motivation.

And now, here he was again. She had nothing left to lose to him.

Nothing except…

“Where is Jurina?” Miona’s stern voice cut through Uncle M’s self-involved diatribe. He pursed his lips at the interruption, but eventually nodded. He’d probably finally realized that she didn’t care what he had to say.

“You mean Hollywood Jurina?”

“Did you hurt her?”

“Why would I? I’m not an animal, little M,” he scoffed. “I’m a businessman. In the business of… unlocking your truest potential. No matter what it takes to get there.”

He snapped his fingers and the large screen at the end of the room came to life, showing—

“Jurina!” Miona gasped.

The CEO was standing in the middle of a wrestling ring, dressed in her bright orange shirt and business pants, blindfold still in place. Her face looked calm, but Miona could see the nerves hiding just below the surface. She was scared.

And then the reason for her fear quickly became apparent as the camera panned to the rest of the ring. At least half a dozen other wrestlers—all clad in their signature outfits, all wearing similar blindfolds. But unlike Jurina, the other wrestlers looked excited, eager to get started… They weren’t going to fight though, were they? All of them?

Miona dared a glance towards Uncle M. She saw the same crazed look he’d been wearing in court that day. Right before he’d betrayed her father.

“What is this?” Miona tried to keep her voice level.

“A chance. The WIP doesn’t just let anyone in to its most prestigious tournament.” A suit walked up to him bearing a mic. Uncle M grabbed the mic and brought it up to his mouth. “I’ve gathered you all here because you all share the same dream.”

Jurina and the other wrestlers perked up at his words. They could hear him.

“But, as you all know, achieving that dream is not so simple. You have all failed. Even this time too, in this season, every single one of you has failed to gain entrance into the WIP’s ELITE championship.”

Miona wanted to point out that no, Jurina hadn’t failed. She’d just applied too late. But before she could, one of the wrestlers in the room spoke up.

“So did you bring us here to shame us?”

“No. I brought you here… in front of the 5 million paid subscribers of our newly-launched WIPlay streaming service...”

Miona’s eyes went wide. Wait, was this being streamed?

Uncle M paused for dramatic effect, knowing he’d just dropped a bombshell. Everyone in the ring looked more nervous than they’d been mere seconds ago. “I brought you here… to make your dream come true. For one of you, at least.”

Then he dropped the mic. Literally.

It made a sharp screeching noise due to the feedback, but neither Uncle M nor the wrestlers cared. One of the suits ran in to pick up the mic and Uncle M just stepped over him, walking back over to where Miona was seated. He pulled out the chair next to her and plopped down unceremoniously.

“Ready for the show, little M?”

He snapped his fingers and the suit with the mic simply said, “Blindfolds off.”

One by one the wrestlers all took off their blindfolds. They looked around, sizing up their competition. Jurina was the last one to take off hers and the camera did a closeup so intimate that there was no mistaking who was the star here.

Which meant that all of this was just Uncle M’s way of trying to get to Miona. This entire production—streaming to 5 million subscribers?—this was all meant for Miona’s eyes only. Now she just had to find out what he wanted before—

“Count them down,” Uncle M ordered.

“Wait!” Miona shouted before the suit with the mic could relay the command. The suit looked to Uncle M for confirmation though. The sleazy director smirked and held up his hand for him to stop, willing to hear Miona out.

“Something you need to get off your chest, little M?”

“What do you want? Why did you bring me here?”

“Now you want to talk about family,” he snorted.

“Is that what this is? You’re upset because I didn’t call you?”

“No, I’m upset because I had plans. Plans that your father’s untimely incarceration have ruined—or so I thought, until I heard that you’d joined his company.”

Miona was starting to see where this was going and it only made her angrier. “You haven’t changed one bit.”

“But I have.” He got to his feet, and gestured to the screen and the large conference room they were in. “I’ve grown. And with great power comes more opportunities to get even more power.”

“That’s not how that quote goes—”

“You have no idea how much it angers me to see my brother’s company reduced to such… such pitiful measures as having to rely on a local gym.” Uncle M’s face contorted in visible disgust.

“Local gym… are you talking about Ring Solutions?”

“Whatever they call themselves, I couldn’t care less.” He waved his hand dismissively. “I don’t even care that you were planning to infiltrate and overthrow my empire—honestly, that’s just smart business.”

Miona tried not to let on that she was surprised that Uncle M knew what they were planning. “Let me guess, your private channels?”

“They could be your channels too, little M. All you have to do is…” He paused, tilting his head in thought. He stared at her for a moment, smiling creepily.

Then he walked right over and grabbed the mic from the suit. Before Miona could stop him, he shouted, “Let the Dream Showdown begin!”

And just like that, all hell broke loose.

 

Miona had only ever seen a few wrestling matches.

On that date that wasn’t really a date that Jurina had asked her out to only two days ago. It seemed like a lifetime had passed since then.

In any case, those showcase matches weren’t enough to prepare her for the actual bloodbath that was Uncle M’s Dream Showdown. Thankfully, none of the blood on the once-clean floor of the ring belonged to Jurina. Not yet, at least.

The CEO was smart.

She knew she was outmatched and outnumbered, but she was fast.

She spun and ducked and jumped and dodged like no one’s business. Like her life was on the line. Because it kind of was.

But out of 8 wrestlers, only one had been knocked out so far and they were going on ten minutes now. Miona wanted to cheer Jurina on, but she was wary of Uncle M’s deepening scowl. He was not happy with how things were going.

After trying unsuccessfully to get Uncle M to finish his previous train of thought, Miona had resigned herself to figuring out a way to get to her phone without him realizing. So far, she’d been able to jiggle her leg enough so that the top of her phone was peeking out of her pocket. If she could just… twist her body enough… maybe her tied hands could reach—

BANG!

Miona jumped in her seat, startled at the loud noise. Uncle M had just thrown another chair. God, why did he have to be so fucking unpredictable? And weird? He was so fucking weird.

Miona looked back down at her pocket and sighed. Her phone had fallen out and landed on the floor.

On the floor by her feet… maybe she could…

“Where’s the mic!?” Uncle M bellowed, pacing up and down the room. One of the suits scrambled to turn on the device, dropping it a few times, before bringing it over to the director. Uncle M grabbed the mic, spitting out his words like venom. “New rules. The last person to—stop fighting while I’m talking to you!”

The wrestlers on the screen all froze, looking up towards the rafters where the speakers probably were. Miona could see the signs of exhaustion on their faces. They were glad for the reprieve, but anxious about what was coming next.

“New rules,” Uncle M announced again, a bit calmer this time. “You can pair up. The last pair left standing gets an automatic entry to the Tag Team Division.” He smirked. “It seems we have a last minute opening.”

He dropped the mic again, but this time the suit was ready to catch it.

Miona couldn’t hold back any more. “That’s not fair. There’s only 7 people left.”

“Then I would hate to be the one left without a partner.”

The wrestlers in the ring looked among each other for a few seconds. Then slowly they started to shift, moving closer to who they wanted to pair with—testing the waters. Jurina was the only one who stayed right where she was. The idiot.

Miona spoke out again, knowing that if she didn’t stop this, Jurina was going to get crushed. Literally and figuratively. “She doesn’t have a team anymore. That’s why we came to you, so she can fight by herself.”

“An interesting plan. Let’s see how that works out.”

There’s no way she could win. There was no way. Miona watched as the wrestlers finally solidified their alliances.

Three pairs and Jurina. All alone.

“Fine.” Miona’s voice shook a bit, but she pushed on. She had to do this. “What do you want me to do?”

 

Jurina struggled to her feet.

She was tired. Tired of running, but if she didn’t keep moving, there was no way she would win.

She was tired of fighting too, but she had to keep going. For herself. For Miona.

She had to—

“Stop fighting!”

The same mysterious voice from earlier came over the speakers again. Jurina was growing tired of being pushed around like a puppet, but she had no choice but to obey. She looked up towards where she assumed the speakers were—they were surrounded by lights and cameras, so looking anywhere else but up would’ve just been plain awkward.

And then one of the wrestlers took a cheap swing at her head while she wasn’t looking.

She ducked thanks to her quick reflexes. “Hey!”

The wrestler ignored her, instead trying for another body shot. She side-stepped him, shuffling away to maintain distance. And then—

“I said stop!”

Suddenly the wrestler dropped to his knees, clutching his head. Was he… okay?

“A new challenger has entered the ring!”

Okay, now the disembodied voice wasn’t making any sense at all. A new challenger? Where?

Suddenly a spotlight was pointed at the ground outside the ring.

For a moment, nothing happened, leaving Jurina and the other wrestlers even more puzzled over what was happening. The guy on the ground had stopped writhing in pain too, so the room was almost eerily quiet. Until they heard the sound of footsteps coming closer.

And then…

Miona walked into the spotlight.

Jurina’s jaw dropped—even more so when she saw the standard issue wrestling outfit her beloved intern was wearing. Even if she didn’t want to believe it, there was no doubting why she had suddenly showed up.

She was joining the fight.

“Miona…”

The CEO watched helplessly as Miona climbed into the ring and fearlessly stood beside her.

The voice was as loud as ever over the speakers, but this time Jurina could barely hear it. “Our newest competitor in the Dream Showdown… Money Miona!”

“You can’t do this,” Jurina whispered urgently. But Miona barely even looked at her. “Miona, please, you’ll get hurt.”

“Just trust me.”

Jurina wanted to retort, wanted to beg her to leave the ring, but—

“Continue the Showdown!”

The game was on. They had to fight.


	15. We're preparing for landing

**Chapter 15 – We’re preparing for landing**

 

“The winner of the Dream Showdown: Hollywood and Money!”

“Newest tag team shakes up the WIP!”

“Hollywood Jurina and Money Miona—the perfect combination!”

“WIP season starts with a BANG! with newcomers, Hollywood and Money”

“Your newest viral obsession: tag team sensations Hollywood and Money!”

 

Miona tried not to react to the countless articles that Jurina was reading on her iPad.

She tried, but there was only so long she could pretend to read the plane’s safety manual while they waited for takeoff. It’s not like she could look at her phone either, since she’d been avoiding looking at that since last night too.

Ever since their fight had ended, she’d been bombarded by calls and texts from coworkers, family, friends and Sugawara. Sugawara who had sent the first text to start off the avalanche. A simple ‘ _!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_ ’ had told Miona all she needed to know about how everyone was reacting to her sudden WIP appearance.

Apparently the clip of their fight had been viewed over 3 million times as of this morning. That didn’t include the live viewing numbers from the stream yesterday either. All in all, the reception had been positive, if a bit overwhelming. From the little she’d seen online before she’d cut herself off, it had started with Jurina’s existing teddy bear fanbase, before completely _exploding_ onto the interwebs.

At least Jurina’s fans liked her. The CEO, on the other hand…

“Would you like something to drink?” The flight attendant asked them politely.

“Water,” Jurina muttered, not taking her eyes off her tablet.

“Same,” Miona echoed.

“Alright, I’ll be back shortly, thank you for your patience.”

The flight attendant walked off and Jurina’s scrolling continued. She hadn’t said a word to Miona since they’d got on the plane this morning. She was mad. Really, really mad.

After their match ended yesterday—they’d won the Dream Showdown which had surprised nearly everyone in that ring—Jurina had fussed obsessively over Miona. How was she? Did anything hurt? How could she be so stupid? The questions and care were endless.

That all ended when the reporters had come out of the woodworks to interview them. Jurina had tried to take point, but Miona had spoken up first.

There, she’d spun a tale about the newest team to beat in the WIP, Hollywood and Money.

After that, Jurina hadn’t said a single word to her till they’d reached the hotel—driven by a driver not named Ed, thankfully. The only thing the CEO had said was, “Flight leaves at 6 tomorrow morning.”

And that was it.

Now they were on the plane trying their very hardest to become the _most awkward_ team to beat in the WIP instead.

“Here are your waters,” the flight attendant said as she returned. After she’d placed them on their trays, she lingered for a moment too long for it to be unintentional. Miona figured out why when she spied her glancing at Jurina’s tablet. Oh no.

“Forgive me if this is weird,” the flight attendant started off hopefully, “but you two wouldn’t happen to be—”

“We aren’t. Sorry.”

Jurina shut her down so sternly that the attendant could only mutter her apologies as she hurried away. That’s when Miona knew she had to fix this. Or at least try to.

“I can explain.”

“Like how you explained to those journalists yesterday?” Jurina fired back, still not looking her way. “Don’t bother, I’m reading it now.”

“You remember how I asked you to trust me?”

“No, you didn’t ask. But I did anyway because I thought I knew you.”

“You do know me—”

“That’s not what it feels like reading these articles.” Jurina shook her head. “You could be a writer.”

Miona sighed at her stubborn boss. “There’s just so much that happened.”

“I know. That’s why I’m reading—”

“Jurina, stop!”

Miona bit her lip after her outburst. She didn’t want to make a scene on a plane, especially not while they were both apparently internet-famous. But she couldn’t let this misunderstanding go on for much longer. Jurina obviously thought Miona had betrayed her, and she would be damned if she’d let her Uncle’s stupid plans ruin what she had with the CEO. She wasn’t like Uncle M or even her father. She’d never disappoint someone like that.

“Look at me,” Miona implored her.

“I don’t know what to say to you.”

“Then don’t say anything, just listen. Please.”

It took a moment, but finally Jurina turned to look at Miona for the first time in hours. When their eyes met, she could see the hurt in them, plain as day. That made Miona’s decision all that easier to make. She had to come clean.

“My Uncle is trying to use us to drive viewership and get publicity for the WIP so that he can grow the franchise in other communities, like schools and colleges. He found out about our plan to win the championship and is threatening to buy out Ring Solutions and torpedo our market value if we don’t cooperate.” Miona paused for a moment to catch her breath. As she mulled over whether there were any other key points to mention, she noticed the wide-eyed look on Jurina’s face. “Oh, and he’s also the one who tricked my dad into laundering money and got him thrown into prison. So there might also be an attempt to revive his criminal schemes with The Firm since he found out I work here now too.”

The plane slowly started its journey away from the gate, taxiing down the runway.

Miona stayed rooted in place, waiting for Jurina to say something. The CEO looked like her brain had exploded.

“Your… um…” Jurina scratched at her eyebrow, too confused for words. “Okay…”

“I know it sounds crazy, but it’s the truth.”

“Right.”

“You have to trust me.”

Jurina sighed, but then nodded. “I do. I do trust you, Miona-hime…”

Miona smiled when she heard the familiar nickname. Even though things were pretty insane right now, some things never changed.

“I just…” Jurina trailed off when the same flight attendant from before passed them on her way to the back of the plane. She straightened up in her seat. “Maybe we should discuss this somewhere more private.”

“The bathroom?” Miona joked.

Jurina snorted with laughter, but then covered her mouth to try and mask the sound. Seconds later, she calmed down, but the smile stayed firmly in place. The ice was broken and Miona internally cheered.

“No, not the bathroom.” Jurina tried and failed to sound stern. “I was thinking more of my office. Tomorrow morning. Maybe even this evening if we can get everyone together.”

She checked her watch, noting the time.

“You believe me?” Miona couldn’t help asking for confirmation. Because it was pretty crazy what she had just sprung onto her boss with no warning.

“It’s hard… but I love you, so…”

The plane did its final turn on the ground and the engines roared to life. Ready to go.

If it wasn’t for the deer-in-the-headlights look on Jurina’s face, Miona would’ve thought she’d misheard that.

The seconds it took for them both to recover had them pressed back into their seats as the plane got up to speed. Ready for takeoff.

“You love me…”

Jurina nodded, a bit of wonder in her voice. “I guess I do.”

Miona wordlessly held the hand that stretched out to her across the armrest.

The plane finally left the ground.

 

“Wait, no, I was joking about the whole bathroom thing,” Miona heatedly whispered, eyes wide.

The door clicked shut behind Jurina and then there were two. In a tiny airplane bathroom.

“Jurina! What are you doing in here?”

“Shhh, don’t shout.”

“Don’t suddenly join someone in the bathroom.”

“I know you don’t really need to go—”

“That doesn’t change anything!”

“Okay, okay, let’s just calm down for a second.” Jurina held up her hands as she took a deep breath. “I wanted to tell you something.”

Miona was deeply curious now. “What is it? And why couldn’t it wait?”

“Because.” The CEO sighed.

Miona raised an eyebrow. “That’s not an answer—”

Jurina leaned in quickly and kissed her on the lips, leaving Miona speechless. It was over as soon as it started, though. And when Jurina pulled back, she hit her arm loudly against the wall.

“God, why are these so small?”

Miona wanted to retort that it was because they were made for single-person use, but she was too dazed to think of anything but the kiss.

“You came in here to kiss me?”

“Once we land, the company’s got a car waiting for us and we’ll probably be in meetings till the sun goes down.”

“Yay,” Miona deadpanned.

“Yeah, my thoughts exactly,” Jurina chuckled. “But that’s what happens when you go through kidnap, blackmail and extortion all on the company dime.” Miona had to admit it sounded pretty horrific when it was laid out all like that.  “And also… I wanted to apologize.”

“For what?”

“Last night and this morning.” Jurina bit her lip as she pulled her words together. “I shouldn’t have ignored you. I was just angry because… I never wanted you to get involved in this. I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that anymore.” Miona held up her hand to show off her new bracelet courtesy of dear old Uncle M. It really should be illegal how much control he had over the wrestlers in the program. “Anyone who comes close gets so dizzy they can barely stand up… That’s why we won.”

Jurina examined the bracelet for a moment, then pushed Miona’s hand away, shaking her head. “No. The reason why we won is because we had each other’s backs.” She had that fire in her eyes that meant she was dead serious. “And that’s how we’ll keep winning this—whatever this is. Together.”

Miona smiled and stepped in close so she could wrap her up in a hug. It was just about the only safe thing they could do in the tiny space anyway.

“Thank you.”

They stayed like that for a moment, before Jurina shifted pointedly. When Miona pulled away to look at her, she saw the sheepish grin on her face. “Also, I wanted to kiss you.”

Miona snorted, pulling away completely. “Of course.”

“Because we can do that now, right? At least when we’re alone.” Jurina pouted. “And I’m kind of pissed that I wasted all of our alone time last night being an idiot.”

“It’s okay, I took care of myself.”

Jurina’s eyes widened comically. “Wait-you—what?”

Miona had the smuggest grin on her face as she reached for the door handle. But Jurina held her hand fast, stopping her before she could leave. “You can’t just drop that and leave.”

“I mean, that’s kind of what bathrooms are for, so—”

Suddenly, a series of knocks came from the outside. They both instantly went silent, listening for any further noises. Miona hoped it was just another passenger she could shoo off quickly and not a more authoritative figure like—

“Could you please return to your seats? We’re preparing for landing.”

That darn flight attendant.  

And judging by the wording she’d used, they’d been found out. Miona paled as she imagined their new fans on the internet finding out they’d ‘joined the mile-high club’. They hadn’t done anything, but that’s not what it would look like when they both walked out of here. She then turned to a not-as-sorry-as-she-should-be Jurina and told her the plan. “You’re the one who came in here, so you deal with this.”

“But I—”

“Or no more kisses. Ever.”

Then Miona carefully opened the door so as to not make it obvious she wasn’t alone. She shot the flight attendant an innocent smile as she made her way back to their first-class seats.

She didn’t see Jurina again until they’d landed and were exiting the plane.

The CEO looked a little worse for wear and she had her jacket buttoned up much higher than looked comfortable. Off Miona’s questioning look, she supplied, “She wanted me to autograph everything she owned, and I mean everything. Seriously. Even the _tampons_ in her purse, can you believe it?”

Miona snickered as they walked down the bridge.

“Are you sure that’s all you did?”

“Yes, that was all.” Jurina huffed, pulling her jacket even tighter.

“Oh yeah? Where’s your shirt?”

Jurina closed her eyes in deep pain, muttering. “It was the only way I could get out of signing her underwear.”

That did it. Miona burst out laughing, having to sit down in a nearby seat to recover. Jurina shot murderous glares her way in between periodic glances at her phone. They were still waiting for the company car to arrive after all.

“Oh God,” Miona gasped, clutching at her stomach. This was too good. “I think this is it. The straw that finally breaks HR’s back. I can’t believe this is how it happens.”

“Nothing is going to happen—”

“Should I even ask?” The tired voice of Oba Mina, head of HR, spoke up from behind them.


	16. You'll fix it, right Minarun?

**Chapter 16 – You’ll fix it, right Minarun?**

 

“Welcome back, you two. How was your Monday? Want to hear about mine?” Oba’s voice was soft, calm and not-at-all indicative of the hell she was to about to drop on them.

Jurina and Miona were seated in the back of the company car along with their head of HR. It was one of those limo-like setups where there was a table, a cooler with wine and plush seats that faced each other. There was tons of space back here, but under Oba’s glare, Miona felt like she was in a tiny clown car.

“Oh, do anything fun?” Jurina cheerfully asked, and Miona wanted to punch her. This was not the time for joking around. Could she not see they were about to die horrible, horrible deaths at the hands of a woman barely 5 feet tall?

“Jurina?” Oba called, smiling like it physically hurt her to do so.

“Yes, Minarun?”

“Don’t talk.”

That shut the CEO up immediately.

Jurina cleared her throat and tried to disappear in her seat, all the while making sure her jacket didn’t open up too much to show what she was missing underneath.

Oba pulled out a black folder that might as well contain nuclear launch codes to how intensely it drew both Jurina’s and Miona’s attention. She opened it and quickly started reading.

“Ring Solutions has very kindly lent us their facilities for the afternoon, so we will be convening there to hold our discussions. I’ve taken the liberty of putting you both down for five one-hour meeting blocks, so if you’re wondering about your timesheets, these will be reflected there. I’ve also compiled a shortlist of priority one questions that were sent in to me and we’ll be going through these first before we get into any deeper discussion.”

“Priority one?” There’s no way the CEO could keep quiet for too long.

“For example—” She glanced up meaningfully at them. “—how it was you two got separated. We were in contact while you were at the hotel, but then on your way there—”

“Drugged and blindfolded,” Jurina supplied like it was no big deal.

Oba’s eyes went wide. “Drugged… and blindfolded…?”

“It was my Uncle. He’s the Director of the WIP and once he found out I was with Jurina, he—”

“Okay, stop, stop, stop.” Oba waved her hand, cutting Miona off. “No more till we can all sit down and talk about this. The executive branch should be on their way by now, and Ms. Takayanagi will also be in attendance.” She looked briefly at her watch, before turning to Jurina. “I thought about inviting your ex-partner.”

Jurina sat up fast. “Did you?”

“No.”

“Good. This is a company issue, we don’t need her there.”

“If she was still here, then maybe our lawyers wouldn’t be running around like mad right now trying to figure out how many labour laws we broke when you had Miona join you in the ring,” Oba fearlessly retorted.

“Hey! I didn’t ask her to join me—”

“It was my own choice! If I didn’t, then my Uncle would’ve—”

“Ah-ah-ah,” Oba cut them off once again, silencing their protests with a single finger. “I’m not the only person you have to convince, so it’s best you save it.”

Jurina angrily bit into her lip, but otherwise held her tongue. Miona wanted to speak up too, but she knew she didn’t have quite as much leeway as the CEO would anyway. She knew it was better to save whatever chances she had to clear things up for when it really mattered later.

But there was one thing she was curious about.

“Can I ask why we’re not meeting at the office?”

Oba sighed heavily. “Because of your fans.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Miona didn’t think she’d heard that correctly.

“Your fans. Both of you have many, _many_ enthusiastic followers that have completely swarmed our lobby as of this morning.” She sighed again. “This all happened so fast.”

“You’re telling me,” Jurina scoffed. She noticed the slightly down look on Miona’s face though, so she reached out to put her hand on her knee. A small sign of comfort that put a thankful smile on Miona’s face.

Oba’s eyes pounced on the action like she’d just been _waiting_ for them to slip up.

It wasn’t anything big, but it was an easy in for their head of HR to finally ask, “You two. How long?”

Jurina drew her hand back like it was on fire.

Miona felt a cold chill run down her spine and she knew that the moment they’d been fearing had finally happened. They’d gotten caught.

_But she’s just guessing, she doesn’t really know anything_ —these were the thoughts that Miona frantically clung to as the panic set in.

And before their silence could get even more incriminating, she started talking. “How long were we in the ring for? Um, I got in maybe ten minutes after Jurina started fighting, right? It was like nine, ten minutes…”

Miona turned to the CEO, hoping she’d help her out. Thankfully, Jurina seemed to pick up what she was putting down and quickly jumped in to her aid. “Y-yeah, like ten minutes, that’s sounds right, yeah. And then the fight went pretty fast after that—”

“That’s pretty standard, right? I remembered you mentioning that one time—that these kinds of tag team matches can’t last too long, ‘cause then you run into—”

“You risk getting injured the longer you stay in, right. You’re absolutely right.” Jurina nodded along like her life depended on it. It was honestly kind of funny-looking if Miona stopped to think about it. Also, if they weren’t so desperately trying to keep their secret relationship a secret, she’d probably be pretty impressed with how well they were finishing each other’s sentences. She made a tiny mental note to feel happy about that later. “So we were in and out in under fifteen, more or less. Give or take a few for like tap-outs and countdowns. Definitely under twenty, though. Definitely.”

Miona and Jurina nodded at each other one final time, before turning back to face Oba.

And predictably, their head of HR was not so easily fooled.

With an unimpressed glare, she said, “Listen. All of our lawyers are busy right now. We’ll have to give them very long, very well-paid vacations after this. So,” She looked meaningfully at Miona first, then finally at Jurina. “This is, most likely, the one chance you have to tell me something our lawyers wouldn’t be happy about. Something that _I_ also won’t be happy about. Off the books.”

“… Right.” Jurina sounded so nervous and that was even before her voice cracked. But when she didn’t offer up anything else, Oba turned to Miona instead.

“You can tell me.”

Miona wondered if this was what it felt like to have your life flash before your eyes.

It’s not that she was suddenly re-living her childhood or anything. But, one by one, almost every single interaction she’d had with Jurina came swinging into focus at the forefront of her mind. She remembered everything. The gym, the jacket, the button, the bird, the emails, the cafeteria, the car, the donuts, the wrestling, the bear, the bar, the confessions, the dogs (and donuts again), the date (that wasn’t really a date), the pretend-dating (that didn’t really work), the suit (oh god, the suit…).

And the teasing, the flirting, the remarkable way in which they just… worked well together.

And the wrestling (again, but there was always wrestling throughout even if it wasn’t always the focus).

Without all of this, they never would’ve gotten to where there were right now.

Not stuck in a car on their way to more company meetings in a row than should be legally possible. Not that.

No.

Right now, they were just two people, Jurina and Miona, who… really… really liked each other.

(Maybe even love? There was that too, right?)

How long had it taken them to get here? Where had it all started?

“Probably since we first met.”

It took a moment for Miona to realize she’d said that out loud. The surprised looks from Jurina and Oba were what clued her in. Almost instantly, she started thinking of a way to backtrack and try to cover it up, but before she could, the car came to a stop.

They were here.

Oba let out a heavy sigh as she sat back in her seat. Miona deflated once she realized the cat was really out of the bag. There was nothing she could do.

She felt a hand on her knee and Miona looked down to see Jurina trying once again to give her some little comfort. This time the hand stayed.

“You know…” Oba started, and Miona braced herself for the worst. A squeeze on her knee told her that she wasn’t alone. “Hollywood and Money is a terrible couple name.”

“… Wait, what?” Jurina blurt out.

“Absolutely horrible. It’s not cute at all and that’s all the fans are calling you,” Minarun shook her head in disappointment. “HollyMoney? H&M? There’s no potential, the brand’s dead in the water. We have to change it.”

Miona was five shades of confused, but when she glanced at Jurina, all she saw was the smile of someone who was proud to have such an understanding friend.

“You’ll fix it, right Minarun?”

“Of course I’ll have to fix it!” Oba folded her arms, barely managing to hide the smile on her own face. “I’m already fixing everything else, why not this too?”

“Aww,” Jurina shuffled forward, fully intending on giving her a big ‘ole hug, but Oba was faster than that. She quickly opened the car door and slipped out before the CEO knew any better. “Minarun~”

“First meeting starts in ten. If either of you manages to get drugged and blindfolded in that time, so help me…” Oba shook her head and playfully slammed the door shut.

Jurina laughed heartily for a moment. Eventually, she sat back in her seat beside Miona, relishing in a surprisingly good outcome.

“That was…”

“Good?” Miona finished with a question. She honestly didn’t know how they’d managed it, but… they were still alive. HR hadn’t completely ended their lives and careers? “She’s right, though.”

“About what?”

“The names.”

“I’ve had Hollywood for almost five years now.”

“Money is my Uncle’s name. His real name.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah,” Miona deadpanned.

“Okay, that’s weird… How about this?” Jurina sat up and turned to look at Miona. Her eyes were soft and full of unrestrained joy. She was happy. “How about…”

Miona waited for Jurina to continue, but it was pretty obvious what her real intentions were when she just kept leaning in closer.

“You were saying?” Miona tried to keep her on track, but Jurina’s smile was contagious. She found herself grinning back at her in no time. Miona tried to bite her lips to keep it in, but no dice. She was happy.

“All I’m saying is… we should—”

Miona had enough.

She swooped in and kissed the smile right off of Jurina’s smug face. At least, she tried to.

All that ended up happening was the two of them, smiling like maniacs, kissing like teenagers, in the backseat of their company car.

It’s a good thing they didn’t have to worry about HR anymore.


End file.
